Left behind
by xxMiyuki5xx
Summary: After Fairy Tail defeats Tartaros, they slowly rebuild the city and Guild hall. After the Dragons helped with Face, they disappeared. Lucy together with the Dragon Slayers wants to search for them, but one morning Lucy finds a letter..
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fanfiction and my first time writing something in english. So I really hope that my writing isn't to bad.

Sadly I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters.

* * *

Again, Lucy woke up without any disturbances during the Night other than her now usual Nightmares. No Nastu had sneaked into her Bed in the middle of the Night und woke her up with his heat. No Natsu in the Morning demanding for food and no Happy munching on a fish.

It's been two weeks since the fight with Tartaros was over, two weeks since she broke Aquarius Key to save her family and two weeks without Natsu in her Apartment. No matter how often she Lucy kicked them out, she missed them dearly. Especially now when she needed her best friend.

 _Well nobody knows what happend during the time the rest of the Guild was trapped, so nobody knows I sacrificed Aquarius to save them. But still he didn't show up ones. I mean yes, we see each other at the Guild but something changed. These last days, you can see all the Dragonslayers, without Laxus since he is still in Coma from inhaling the Particles, at a Table in a Corner farthest away from the rest. They are probably all excited cause all of them had seen there long lost Dragons, even Sting and Rouge. Sadly for them the Dragons left soon after they helped with destroying Face._

 _I'm pretty sure we will all soon leave to search for the Dragons. After all I promised Natsu to help him find Igneel and as a Celestial Mage I don't break promises. Even though I'm feeling down and hurt because of Aquarius loss. But then again this could be a good Chance to go on new adventures and lessen the pain I'm feeling every minute._

 _It will be some time bevor the pain will go away and I believe my Nightmares won't stop so easily but I believe it will help in some way. However I hope I have a few more days before we will start our search. I mean right now I cry myself to sleep every Night and without Loke and Virgo coming on their own power I'm not sure I would sleep and eat at all._

 _I even cover Aquarius Tattoo at my collarbones. Not because I'm ashamed of it, no I love it. But if they would see it, they would ask questions. And right now I'm not ready to answer these questions. But I think when we leave to search for the Dragons I can't hide it for much longer._

While all these thoughts run through Lucy's head, she finished getting ready for the day and going to the Guild. She wanted to be there early this morning to help with the last few things they needed to do, to fix the Guild completely. Thanks to the help from other Guilds and the people from Magnolia they could fix the city much faster than thought.

All this rebuilding kept Lucy occupied during the day, so she had no time to think about Aquarius and brake down crying in front of her Guild mates.

Lucy hopes that after they are done with the repairs for the day, she has some time with her friend. It's been a long time since they just talked. So she puts on her belt along with her Keys and whip and goes to the Guild. On the ways she summons Plue to her side for the much needed company.

After a few minutes she arrives at the Guild an send Plue back to the Spirit World. "Good morning, everyone!", she greets and makes her way to the bar to get her loved strawberry-shake from Mira. "Good morning, Lucy. You'r usual?" Lucy nods and smileys brightly at her to hid her hurt. "Thanks, Mira. You'r Milkshakes are the best! How are you by the way? And anything new from the Thunder God Tribe?" "I'm fine. Unfortunately no changes but Porlyusica thinks that they just need a few more days before they wake up." "That sounds good. I hope they wake up soon. Do you know if Levy-chan needs help in the library or anything else I can help with?" "Hmm.. I believe there are quite a few books left. So you can go and help her." "Thanks, Mira. See you later."

Lucy finishes her shake and makes her way to the library to avoid the first Guild brawl that ist yet to start. "Morning, Levy-chan! I'm here to help with the books." "Lu-chan! Good to have you here, nobody else wants to help me." Levy pouts cutely and Lucy giggles in return. "Well.. why that? I really can't understand...", Lucy teased. "You meanie! It's not my fault when they don't know how wo treat books right!", Levy huffs. "Yeah yeah I know. But did you have to hit Jet and Droy with you'r bag that hard? No wonder nobody dares to touch our precious books. Even if I can understand you.. Hadn't you hit them I might have summoned Virgo to punish them..", Lucy giggles wickedly at her imagination. "Punishment Princess?", Virgo pops out. "No Virgo no punishment, but maybe next time when Jet and Droy are about to destroy the books", at her answer Virgo shows one of her rare sinister smiles what caused Levy to shiver and step unconsciously back.

 _Lu-chan and her Spirits sure can be really scary! I heard the Storys from Nastu und Gray... Both experienced Virgos punishment and since then they immediately stops when Lucy threatens them with her again.._

"In that case I will take my leave Princess."

* * *

A few hours later Lucy and Levy finished and emerged from the library to step directly in a Guild brawl. The two of them seek shelter under one of the Tables and wait for the inevitable end with Erza knocking everybody out the second her precious strawberry cake dies.

"There they go again, you would expect after sometime they learned the lesson..", Lucy sigh. "Oh Lu-chan, without it, it wouldn't be Fairy Tail", Levy smiles. "Yeah you're right, but we just finished fixing the Guild and now they destroy everything again.. Say Levy-chan do you see Nastu?" "Now that you say it, no I don't. How come there is a brawl without Nastu? I mean, he always starts them. And now that I think about it, Gajeel isn't there either." "Strange.. Well it looks like we're save to stop hiding. I'm going to Erza and Gray for a bit, maybe there know where a ll the Slayers are. I just noticed the rest of them ist nowhere to see too." "Yeah really strange.. bye Lu-chan. See you later!", Levy got up from unter the Table and makes her was to Jet and Droy. "See you later, Levy-chan!", Lucy too got up and makes her way to Erza and an still unconscious Gray.

"Hey Erza", Lucy greets her friend as she slips into the opposite bench next to Gray. "Lucy, where were you the whole day?", Erza stops eating her cake to look at Lucy and smiles before she ate the last from her cake. "I helped Levy in the library with the last books. How about you? Are you ok?", Lucy asks. "I'm fine, but there ist something I wanted to speak about with you and the rest of Team Natsu. So we need to wai..", and just then Gray wakes up. Lucy giggles a bit cause his confused face is just to funny.

"Right on time Gray, Erza wanted to talk about something with us. By the way, do you know where Nastu is? I didn't see him the whole day.", Lucy turned to Gray. "How fitting, I too wanted to speak about something with Team Natsu. And no sorry, don't now where Flame-Brain is. Didn't see him the day either.", Gray speaks up. "Should we wait for him?", Lucy asks both of them.

 _I don't know what it is, but I have a really strange feeling about this whole thing. Erza and Gray want to speak with Team Natsu.. both of them seem rather serious. And Natsu and the other Slayers are no where to see.. I just hope it is nothing bad.. I don't know if I can stand any more bad things._

"I think we should start, sadly I don't have the whole day to wait for him.", Erza answered. "Well in that case I just tell him later when I see him the next time", Lucy offered. "Then I will begin. I wanted to tell you, that as much as it pains me, I need to take a break from Team Natsu.", Erzas announcement, both Lucy and Gray are shocked. But if you look closely, you can also see a little bit relief in Grays eyes and hurt in Lucys. "Before you ask, let me please explain.", after Erza sees both of them nod in agreement she begins her explanation. "Jellal asked me if I wanted to travel with them for a few months. And I believe this is just something I need after everything that happened with Tartaros. I really hope you can understand that..", a hopeful Erza looks at both her Teammates. "Oh Erza, of course I understand! Everyone from us has scars Tartaros left on us. And after all it is just a temporary break and not permanently. I just wished I could still see you..", Lucy reassured Erza. "That's good to hear. I wished too, that we could still see us. And I would love to have you travel with us but I don't really know if this is the right thing for you"

"That's quite fitting for me. I wanted to ask for a break too", Gray interjects. "You too? Whys that?", a surprised Erza asks. "Well you see.. I'm sure you remember Silver from Tartaros? And heard that he is my Father? I wanted to visit my parents grave and...", Gray stopped mid sentence. "Gray you know you can tell us everything? Bus if you don't want to, you don't have to.", Lucy nudged Gray lightly and gives him a warm smile. "Yeah I know, thanks Lucy", Gray hugs Lucy shortly before his stalker, Juvia, sees it and drowns her. "Before my father died he gave me is magic. That means I'm know a Ice-Devilslayer. And since this is a knew magic for me I need to train with it. I think, that's something I rather do alone cause I don't want to hurt anybody if I lose control.." "We understand, don't worry Gray we wish you the best!", Erza smiled at him.

"Erza you said, that you don't have the whole day to wait for Natsu, does that mean you leave today? And what about you Gray, when are you leaving?", Lucy asks and smiled at them but can't hid her hurt fully. Lucy doesn't really know what to think right know. She know that they both need their time off, but what about her? Will she be left alone in the Guild? "Yes, I will take my leave tonight. I'm sorry that this is so soon but Jellal asked me just two days ago and we didn't really had a chance to talk between fixing the Guild" "I too will leave tonight. Sorry Lucy, that is rather spontaneously but I have to do it now before my magic goes instabile.", Gray added with an apologetically expression. "It's okay guys, I understand...", Lucys said. "Don't you go with Flame-Brain and the other Slayers on Dragon search in a few days?", a curious Gray asked. "Yeah I think so, until now he didn't say anything about that to me. To be honest we rarely spoke these last few days... But that will change as soon as we start our search. He is just excited that he had seen Igneel after such a long time again. And as a Celestial Mage I promised him to help him find Igneel, so this is what I'm gonna do!", Lucy becomes quite in the middle but to the end she one again smiles brightly at her friend. But again this bright smile is more fake than real.

Just the thought of her friends leaving tonight, even if it isn't for all ways, hurts deeply. Especially now that Nastu rarely speaks with her or visits her at her apartment. But she believes this will change as soon as the search starts.

 _Hmm.. Lucy just looked rather sad and her smile seems a bit fake to me.. I hope she is okay.. Nah, it is just that we're leaving and won't see each other for a long time. But I hope that it won't be too long. I'm going to miss them so much, maybe even Flame-Brain a little. Who else will fight with me, hehe._

"I wish you good luck on you're journey Lucy! And Natsu too. Maybe you find him fast and can come back to the Guild. I could maybe visit when we are near Magnolia. That way we could see each other more often and you don't have to travel for such a long time. Anyway greet Nastu and say goodbye from me and that I'm sorry, I couldn't speak with him personally. But I must go now.", a happy but at the same time sad Erza said as she stood up to go and meet with Jellal and the rest of the Crime Sorcière.

Before Lucy can say her goodbye, Gray too stood up. "Sorry Lucy, but I need to go now too, if I want to catch my train.", Gray too is happy and sad at the same time. He really don't like the thought of leaving is little sister behind but is't for the best. And he believe they all need this time.

So Lucy too stand up to give her both friend a proper goodbye with big bear hugs for both of them. Of course not without a few tears in all their eyes. Even Gray couldn't stop them.

After that the mages left the Guild to find a way to heal their pain. Both needed the time to heal. One of them alone and with training to continue the legacy of his dead father. And the other with the man she loved since childhood and his friends, just a way from the Guild.

Her friends gone, Lucy too, makes her way out of the Guild to go home. Since Natsu is still nowhere to be found, she need to tell him the news tomorrow or maybe he will come by tonight. On the way out Lucy say's bye to her other friends and then leaves to let her walls fall and cry as soon as she got home, in hope that Natsu will visit her again after such a long time.

But Natsu doesn't come by, so she goes early to bed to sleep, completely exhausted from her long and emotional day.

* * *

 **In the middle of the Night with the Slayers:**

"So you really wanna go without so much as a goodbye, Natsu-san? Do you think this is a good Idea?", asked a very confused Sting. "Yeah, it's for the best. If we say goodbye, Luce would want to come with us.." "But Natsu-san, why can't Lucy-san come with us? I thought she is your best friend? And I really want to have her with us. And didn't she promise you to help find Igneel?", now a very sad Wendy asked. The thought to just left Lucy behind, the girl she thought of as a older sister, without a proper goodbye doesn't sit right with her. "Of course she is my best friend! But this search is just to dangerous for her, I don't want her to get hurt!", Natsu tries to convince the other four Slayers, but without success. "That doesn't make sense Salamander! You say that you want to take that Lisanna-chick with us but not Bunny-Girl? And I'm gonna take Shrimp. So you leave Bunny alone.", an outraged Gajeel replies. "Well yeah, Lisanna and Levy are different! They are our soon to be Mates, so of course we're gonna take them with us. Any way Lisanna promised me as a kid to help me find Igneel an..." "Bunny promised you too!" "Well yeah but I now Lisanna longer and I can't protect both of them at the same time. At the Guild Luce is safe and she has Erza and Gray here.", Natsu replies, full of certainty.

"I belief there is no way we can convince Natsu-san to take Lucy-san with us. But do you really don't want to say goodbye Natsu-san?", Rouge tries one last time. This discussion is going on for these last days. All the Slayers know that they can't convince Natsu but they have at least to try because of Lucy. Neither of them want to just leave her behind. Even Sting and Rouge hesitate to just go, since the end of the GMG they became good friends with her and this feels like some kind of betrayal.

Since they began talking about leaving to search for their Dragons they discussed this over and over. In the end, they decided to at least write a letter for her and leave something for her behind.

"I meet you here back in a few minutes, just let me bring this to Luce. After that we can get Lisanna and Levy", and gone was Natsu, without seeing the single tear leaving Wendy's eye.

 _I can't believe he is really going to leave Lucy-nee behind. I will miss her so much. And I really wanted to at least say goodbye to her in person, not just some letter. Hopefully she will forgive me when we are back. I'm going to miss you Lucy-nee!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Next morning, Lucy's apartment:**

As Lucy wakes up she sees that again Natsu hadn't visit her in the Night, the only thing that 'visited' her where her Nightmares. So she get's her clothes for the day and goes to take a relaxing bath.

 _Ahh.. that's exactly what I need_. _I have a feeling something is going to happen to day, whether good or bad I really don't know.. But after everything that happend lately it has to be something good! The whole Guild can't bear more bad things. Maybe Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe will finally wake up, that would definitely be good news.._

 _I hope Natsu isn't to angry that Erza and Gray left without saying goodbye to him, well can't change that now. Hopefully he is at the Guild today, I want to now when we start the search for the Dragons. If I'm lucky, I can find new Keys on the way. I'm so excited for this journey, this is exactly what I need after everything with Aquarius... No Lucy! No crying! That isn't what she wanted! She wanted me and my family to live! But I miss her so much.._

Lucy can't stop the tears drop from her eyes. But as she said, right now is no time to cry.

So she shut down her thoughts and just relaxed for a few more minutes in her strawberry bubble bath. Lucy loved the scent of Strawberries, that's why when ever she has the chance she get's something with the fruit, like Mira's Milkshake.

When Lucy noticed that the water slowly turns cold she finishes to wash her hair with her honey shampoo. After drying her body, putting on her new clothes and wrapping her hair in the towel, she exited the bathroom.

To satisfy her Hunger she goes to the kitchen to make some breakfast. But stops dead in her tracks, when she spots the box on her table.

First she just looked warily at the box, thinking that this is some kind of prank from Natsu and Happy. Slowly Lucy approached said box. It's just a plain little brown box, nothing special about it. _I wonder where that box is coming from.. Well better open when I want to find out._

Lucy reached for the box and raised the lid. The first thing she noticed is the letter on top. _Who would send me a letter?_ So she takes the envelope and opens it to read the content and ignores the wrapped little thing underneath. Opening, she finds three individual letters in one big letter. Putting aside the three smaller letters she begins to read the bigger one.

 _Luce,_

 _the other Slayers, the exceeds and I are on the journey to find our Dragons. Sorry that I don't take you with us but I already take Lisanna with me and I can't protect you both at the same time. This search will be really dangerous. And since Lisanna is possibly my Mate and she promised me to help find Igneel before you, I'm taking her with me. So stay save at the Guild and wait for us. You still have Erza and Gray so you won't be alone._

 _We'll be back in a year or so._

 _Natsu_

 _P.S.: These other letters are from the other Slayers. And the other thing in the box is a little surprise so that you won't forget us._

After the first few words the tears flow down Lucy's cheeks, she just can't stop them. She rapidly blinks just so she can read the rest of the letter.

 _They just left me behind. How could they? How could you Natsu? You promised me! Doesn't this mean anything to you?! How could you betray me like this? You should know that I don't need your protection! How can this search be more dangerous than the mission we had?! Couldn't you at least tell me goodbye in person? Why does everybody just leave me? And Wendy, you too? Without a goodbye? No stop, don't accuse Wendy before you have read her letter! She is just to cute to just leave me behind without a goodbye! My little sister..._

So Lucy sets the Letter aside and reads the other three.

 _Lucy-nee,_

 _please don't be mad at me! I'm so sorry! We all tried to convince Natsu to take you with us, but he would always say no. He even didn't allow us to tell you goodbye in person. I'm so sad to leave you behind! I just don't understand him! I really don't know why he believes that he needs to protect you and why this journey is to dangerous for you, I just don't understand._

 _I really wished you could be here with me Lucy-nee, this journey will not be the same without you here. Even so I have Carla with me, it isn't the same. She isn't my nee-san. Hopefully the search doesn't take us to long, I don't want to be so long away from you and everyone else from Fairy Tail! And I would have love to introduce you to Grandeeney. I'm sure she would have love to meet you!_

 _I'm going to miss you Lucy-nee!_

 _Wendy_

Just by looking at the letter you can see how sad Wendy was to leave Lucy behind, there are a few dried tears.

 _Bunny-Girl,_

 _Ash-for-Brains is an Asshole to just leave you behind! Nobody from us can understand his decision! Especially to not say goodbye in person. To take Lisanna with him is understandable, as she is his possibly mate, but to leave his best friend behind just because she comes with us doesn't make sense at all. I really don't understand why he believes he needs to protect you, you're strong! Don't believe everything else! Never let you tell otherwise, this is just not true!_

 _I'm really sorry to leave you behind! And I'm even more sorry to take Levy with me. I know she is you're best friend and you need her.. But I can't leave her behind. She is my mate, so there is no way to leave with out her for me._

 _But please don't be mad at her. She didn't know. We're going to get the girls after leaving the box at you're place._

 _I hope you can forgive us when we're back! Be strong Bunny!_

 _Gajeel_

 _Lucy-san,_

 _we are_ _really sorry that we could't convince Natsu-san to take you with us. We know that we know each other not for a very long time and that we really didn't have a good start.. But we are happy that we have become such good friends after the GMG and we hope that will not change over the time we're searching for our Dragons._

 _I am really sorry too, to take Yukino with me. I know you two have become even better friends then you are with us. But as she is my mate I need her by my side and can't let her alone when I am so long away. I'm sure Gajeel told you to don't be mad at the girls, since they them self didn't know that we take them with us and are going tonight, until we pick them later._

 _Again, we are really sorry for not taking you with us and telling you in person that we leave!_

 _Sting and Rouge_

To say that Lucy is shocked is an underestimation. She is so shocked that the tears stop and she just stares at the letters. It is as if she doesn't feel anything at all. She feels just dead inside.

"Princess the Spi...", Loke pops out but stops dead in his tracks as he sees Lucy's state. In order to not startle her he slowly goes to her, as he stand in front of her Lucy slowly lifts her head and looks at him. The look in her eyes scares Loke to no end, they completely lost their shine, they just look dead as if all happiness has left her.

It's the same look she had after the war with Tartaros was over and she broke down at home because of the loss of Aquarius. But this is worse, there are no tears, just this dead look in her eyes. Loke has no idea what to do and what could cause such pain to her but before he could try she begins to speak.

"How could he?", she whispers and breaks down crying, letters long forgotten on the floor.

In an instand Loke knees besides her and hugs her. He slowly lifts her in his arms to carry her to the couch and sits down with her in his lap. Loke just let her cry.

In her trusted Spirits arms she slowly calmed down until she just sobs. The warms of his arms and body helps to stop crying and push the pain aside to tell him what happend.

"Loke? Why does everybody leaves me? Is something wrong with me? Am I really that weak? Why doesn't he want me by his side?", Lucy murmurs in his shoulder.

"Who left you and don't want you by his side? And nothing is wrong with you! Why would you believe something like that? And weak? No way!"

Lucy just points to the letters on the floor. So Loke lifts her up to set her at the couch alone and read the letters.

To say Loke is shocked as he reads the letters is not quite right, you could say he ist seething with rage. At least with Natsu, you could exactly tell wich letter he reads, just from his expression. As he finished reading he takes the letters and the box and settles back on the couch next to Lucy. There he sets said objects on the coffee table and gently takes Lucy back in his arms.

"Oh Lucy..", Loke speaks up after a while, "I really don't understand what is wrong with Natsu to do this! At least you know, that the others didn't wanted this. And I have to say it again, you are not weak and there is definitely nothing wrong with you!" Lucy just silently sobs in his shoulder for a little while longer.

When she calmed down enough, Lucy sits back in his arms to look in his eyes, "Thanks Loke, I'm feeling a little better now. I just don't understand why he would break our promise to search together for Igneel... Or why he would think he need to protect me... Soo... was there a reason you showed up?"

"Well yeah, there was a reason but that can wait for now. What do you want to do now?", he asked curiously. "I think at first I will look what the other thing in the box is." And with that she grabs said box and open the little present. Inside is a bracelet with different charms on it and a little note.

 _Luce,_

 _it's me again. Since I and the other Slayers are not by your side to protect you, this bracelet will do the job. I know how often you get in trouble and always need saving._ _The charms on the bracelet represent our elements, such as a Flame for me, and should protect you to a certain degree against our elements._

 _The others at first didn't want to give you this, cause they said that you don't need the protection, but I know you better than them. So I convinced them..._

 _Natsu_

Sadness now gone, Lucy threw the bracelet in her anger across the room. "How fucking dare he?! I need protection because I'm always in trouble? Most of the times I'm in this trouble because of him!", she growled. Loke is equally shocked and angry, he just can't believe what Natsu thought, apparently, of his Princess.

"I think I know now what I want to do next Loke, but I need your help and the help of all the others!", Lucy said full of new found determination.

"And what is it? And with what do you need our help", Loke asked.

"I have decided that if they don't want to travel with me I'm going to do it an my own. Now that all my best friends are gone I can finally go on a search for more Keys. Just like I did before Natsu brought me to Fairy Tail. And I want all your help to train me on the way, I know you said that I'm not weak but I can always get stronger. And I will under no circumstances just wait for them to get back, as Natsu said. Who knows how long they will be gone."

With that Lucy stand up to pick the bracelet up and puts it back in the box. Next she goes to her desk and starts a letter of her own.

"I think that is a wonderful idea, Princess! And remember, you will never be really alone, you will always have us by your side. I'm positive the others would happily agree to help you train. When will you start and what are you doing there? Oh and I will make you some breakfast.", Loke too stand up.

"Thanks again, Loke, you have no idea how much that means to me!", Lucy smiled lovingly at her Spirit, "And I think I will leave today. Right now I'm writing a few letters of my own as an answer of some sort for when say come back to the Guild. If they come back before me that is. After breakfast I will head out to the Guild and discuss this with master and right after that, leave Magnolia. Do you have any suggestions to where I could go?"

"Then you may call Virgo out to help you and store your belongings in the Spirit World. You could ask Master if you can go to Tenrou for a while, a few months maybe. I think that's a pretty good place to start training. And after the few months you can just travel and search for Keys." "Hmm.. Tenrou I like the idea, I will definitely ask Master about it. And I just thought maybe I should take some jobs at first so I can save a little money for necessaries. If I'm lucky they have jobs that offer Silver Keys as a reward. I'd seen them there often but Team Natsu never let me take them cause they always wanted the monster missions. Do you think master will allow me to keep my Guildmark until I'm finished with the jobs? Don't think I will leave permanently, but I would like to get a new mark when I get back as a sign of a new start.", she explained.

After Lucy is finishend with her letters and had put them in the box from the Slayers together with the bracelet, as a sign what she thinks of this, and eating, she packs all her belongings. While packing she finds all the presents she got from her dad while they where frozen in time. Lucy had totally forgotten about them but decided they could wait a little longer and sends them to the Spirit World with all her other belongings.

Finished, Lucy tells her Landlady that she will be moving out and walks one last time her normal way along the canal to the Guild.


	3. Chapter 3

Here comes Chapter 3.

(Sadly) while writing the story I had ideas for two other storys. So right now I'm trying to get these ideas out of my head and am writing on these other storys too. But I still have a few more Chapters for this story already written so I should be able to still update once a week.

* * *

Arrived at the Guild Lucy made her way over to the bar to get her last Strawberry-Shake for a long time.

"Morning Mira!", Lucy smiled brightly at her, so that Mira doesn't suspect something isn't right. "Morning Lucy! Your usual?" Lucy nodded and makes her way to the request board to look for some good paying job and hopefully some with Keys as rewards, while she waits for Mira to finish her Shake.

Since the Guild just started with going on missions again a few days ago there are quite a few good looking ones.

 **Celestial Mage needed!**

 **Our Town is attacked by a dark Celestial Mage.**  
 **He uses his Spirits to attack our villagers and break in our shops.**  
 **No dead until now but some serious injuries!**  
 **Please help to capture him!**

 **Location: Scilla**  
 **Reward: 110.000J + his Celestial Gate Keys**

 _Ohh perfect, they especially ask for a Celestial Mage. I wonder what Keys he has... And wow! So much money, that would be enough for my rent and some sho.. Stop Lucy! Don't think about it, thinking like that will just make you cry again! Soo... I really hope I alone can do this Job but with my Gold Keys this should be no problem. Since they are much stronger then Silver Keys. I hope the Dark Mage isn't to bad to his Spirits like Karen or Angel.. well he is a Dark Mage so probably he treats them terrible. In that case I'm more than happy to take is Keys when he goes to jail, hopefully they want to make a contract with me._

 **Please investigate!**

 **An unknown monster howls in the Night.**  
 **We ask to find out what that monster is and whether it's**  
 **dangerous or not.**

 **Location: Picea**  
 **Reward: 80.000J**

 _I wonder what kind of monster that is.. howling.. sounds like some kind of wolf or so.. Well I will find out if Master let me take this mission._

 **Help us!**

 **Group of thieves break in our houses and rob us!  
** **Sometimes they attack us on the street!**  
 **Help to arrest them and find the stolen things.**  
 **As far as we know, they are no mages.**

 **Location: Acacia**  
 **Reward: 65.000J**

 _As long as they are no mages I should be able to take down a group of thieves. This is perfect to see what I can do without magic in a fight so I and my Spirits know what I need to learn._

 **Search!**

 **Old book found but we can't achieve it.  
Please help to retrieve it.  
There a magical traps!**

 **Location: Hargeon**  
 **Reward: 45.000J**

 _Not much money but it is directly in Hargeon from where I start to Tenrou in hopes that Master allows it. Levy-chan would have normally took this job in the moment she sees it on the board.. But she is gone, along with the Slayers.. Or maybe Freed would have took it as some kind of relaxation but he is still in coma as long that didn't change over night.. Even is that would be the case he needs to rest so I can take this job. I'm sure Grandpa Crux would love to help me..._

With that last thought an no other interesting missions on the board Lucy carefully picks her four chosen missions up an stores them in her pocket and hopes nobody had seen her take them.  
Looking to the bar she sees Mira sets her Shake on the counter and makes her way back.

"Thanks Mira!", again she smiles brightly at her but then frowns as she noticed something.

 _How come that Mira doesn't ask if I'm okay? Natsu took Lisanna with him.. so Mira and Elfman should know that they are gone and had left me behind. So how come she don't look sad at all that her little sister is gone? Or maybe she don't know at the moment, maybe they didn't left a note for them.. But Lisanna would never leave without telling her siblings.. So maybe they just didn't see the note. As much as I want wo ask there is no way I can ask that with out revealing that they are gone without me.._

"Say Mira, is Master in is office? I would like to ask him something.. And by the way any new from Laxus and his Team?", Lucy asked. "Yes he is upstairs. And sadly no, no changes over the night. Elfman and I stayed over night in the infirmary.", Mira answered with a hint of sadness in her voice at the end.

 _That would explain why they are acting so normal with a missing Lisanna, they don't know yet that they are gone..._

"Then I will go to him once I'm finished with my Shake. And I'm sad to hear that there are still no changes but as we said yesterday, Porlyusica thinks that they need a few more days to wake up. I'm sure she is right with that, maybe I visit them after I'm done talking with Master." "Yeah, I'm sure you're right with that or rather Porlyusica is right. With medical things she is nearly always right. And visit them? I think that's a nice idea.. you never know if they don't hear us when we talk to them.", Mira smiled.

With that Mira turns back around to serve the other waiting Guild members.

A few minutes later Lucy finished her Milk-Shake and goes upstairs to Masters Office. "Master can I come in?", asked Lucy after she has knocked on the door. "Yes child come in." So Lucy opened the door and makes her way to one of the chairs in front of Masters desk to sit down. "Lucy my child, what can I do for you? Did something happen?", a now slightly concerned Master asked.

Lucy sighed and answers him, "Sadly yes, something did happen. But before I tell you that I need you to promise me to not freak out and listen before you ask you questions." Lucy takes the one nod from Master as agreement and begins her explanation. "I wish to take an absence from the Guild to train and search for new Keys. And before you asked if I want to do that alone, the answer to this would be no. But right now I sadly doesn't have a choi.." "Lucy what makes you believe that you don't have a choice? Why do you believe that you have to do this alone? What is with the rest of Team Natsu?", Master interrupts. "Master! What did I say about to not freak out and wait for questions? Well doesn't matter right now... The reason why I believe that I have to do this without Team Natsu is that Team Natsu is gone.. Master.. no more interruptions, I explain everything. So as I said Team Natsu is gone. Erza and Gray told me yesterday that they need a break from Team Natsu. Or rather they need to do other things right now after everything that happend with Tartaros. Erza wants some time with Jellal and even though she would have taken me with her she thought that I will be with Natsu. So she left yesterday evening. Same thing goes for Gray, he told us that he wanted to visit the grave of his parents and train his new magic. His father, Silver from Tartaros, gifted him with Ice-Devilslayer-Magic and he wants to train it far away from everyone to make sure he doesn't hurt someone accidentally. And Natsu...", at this point Lucy stops to blink away tears that are gathering in her eyes.

Master waits patiently for her to continue but it looks like Lucy needs a little push to tell him what's going on with Natsu. Master can't help but think that something in Lucy did break from what ever Natsu did to her. The look in her eyes is something Master hoped to never see in one of his children eyes. There is so much hurt that he believe there has to be more...

But before Master can push er to speak again Lucy overcomes her numbness and continued speaking.

"Well Natsu did the most hurtful thing. He and the other Slayers left this night to search for the Dragons. And while Erza and Gray did say goodbye to me in person Natsu and the other Slayers just left a letter in my room. I believe that Natsu did sneak in my apartment in the middle of the night and left the box with the letters on my desk. And as if this wasn't hurtful enough the other Slayers left me a letter too and explained to me that they wanted me to come with them or at least tell me goodbye in person. So that means that Natsu was the only one who didn't want me there and furthermore don't think that I'm worth a proper goodbye. And no Master I'm sure he didn't want me there.. He broke our promise to search together for Igneel. He believes I'm to weak for this journey and that he would have to protect Lisanna and me. Yes he did take Lisanna with him and her siblings doesn't know this. I believe they left a letter for them too but since both of them stayed the night in the infirmary they didn't read it yet. Oh and Gajeel did take Levy with him and Sting Yukino, but all three girls didn't know this as the Slayers write in the letters."

At the end Lucy can't stop the tears from streaming down her face. She told Master a lot more than she originally planned but here in his office with the man she sees as her own grandfather she just couldn't stop. And Master is so shocked that is jaw dropped and he just looks at her.

After some time to think what to say to his child Master speaks again, "Are you sure child that there is now misunderstanding? Would it be okay for you if I read some of the letters?" Lucy just hands him the letters and let him read all of them. You can see the hurt and disappointment in his face the more he reads.

As he is finished reading he jumps from his desk directly to Lucy to give her an fatherly hug. He just don't know what to say. What Natsu did there is so unbelievable to him. And he can't imagine how much hurt Lucy must feel from this betrayal of friendship, even more so because Natsu is her best friend.

"Lucy do you believe that it is the right decision to go alone right now? I'm not saying that you are weak or need protection but after everything that happend during Tartaros and now this I'm scared that you're emotions are to much to be alone right now. I think it would be better to wait a little while..."

"Yes Master I believe this is exactly what I need. And remember I never truly alone, I have always my Spirits at my side!" The thought of her Spirits brought a slight smile back to her face.

"Yes, Lucy will always have us by her side! We love her as much as she loves us! Lucy is truly an amazing Master!", Loke pops out. Since Lucy sensed his arrival she didn't jump in fright, but Master on the other hand didn't expect him there and jumps away. Right back over his desk on the floor. Lucy stand up hastily to check on Master but starts laughing at the sight in front of her.

In his backwards jump Master turned so that he is now hanging with one foot on his chair and the rest of his body lays on the floor. From this position you sadly can't see is face. Master just lays in this position a little while longer before he slowly glides down and turns to his back before he jumps up. And promptly jumps head first against the edge of the table and plumps back to the ground, a dazed expression on his face. This makes Lucy just laugh harder and remembers her of her first day at the Guild as Master wanted to jump to the second floor and flies against the railing.

Loke too can't stop to laugh at this scene and is happy that Lucy laughs again even if it is just in this moment. He and the other Spirits swore to bring back her smile and laughter. So he lets her laugh a few more moments before he helps Master to sit again on top of his desk.

Master too is quite happy that Lucy laughed even though it was at his own expensive. "So now that we know that you will not be alone with your Spirits by your side what exactly did you plan to do?"

"Well.. firstly I was hoping that there is a possibility to take away the Guildmark not right now but after I finished some jobs." "To take away your Guildmark? I thought you just wanted an absence and not leave permanently?", Master asked scared to lose one of his childs.

"Your right. It will just be an absence but I wanted a complete new start when I 'm back to the Guild and get a new mark. I just have a feeling that my current mark doesn't fit me anymore. And since I'm sure I will change a bit over my time away I can't tell what new mark would fit. So I will get one when I'm back.", Lucy explained.

"Ah I understand. But can't I take it of then after you finished with your jobs?" "Yes that would be a possibility but I had another question that maybe helps to explain my plan better. Loke suggested me to ask you if you would allow me to go to Tenrou to train there for a few month before I will start my travel and search for new Keys. But since I need money to travel I thought to go on some jobs before and go directly to Tenrou after the last job. I was hoping that I don't have to come back to the Guild after today. Before coming here I took four jobs from the request board and I would like to finish them alone. And since one of them is in Hargeon it would be perfect to just go to Tenrou right after I finished the job.", with that Lucy took out the four job flyers and showed them Master.

Master reads carefully every detail. After a double check he gives them back to Lucy and nods. "Your selected jobs are partly quite dangerous but I believe in you. I will allow you to take all four of them under one condition, you will take this Com-Lacrima with you and contact me after every finished job and before you start your job. And yes I will allow you to train on Tenrou but you need your Guildmark to get there so you can call me when you are finished with your training there and then I will take your Guildmark away."

"Thank you Master!", Lucy jumps up and hugs him. "Loke will you take Lacrima to Virgo to store it away for later? And thanks for coming here and support me. Oh and tell the others how much I love them and that I'm very grateful that all of you are always at my side!", at his nod they both hug quickly before he puffs back to the Spirit World.

"Master I have one more request. I don't want and need this bracelet to protect me so can you give this box back to Natsu and the other Slayers if they are back at the Guild before me? I wrote some letters for all of them and put them in the box together with the bracelet, there are letters for Gray and Erza too in case they are back before me. Please hand them out." "Of course my child. I will make sure that they get the letters", with that Lucy hands the box to Master and stands up.

"Are you leaving right now?" "Yes I will take my leave. I wanted to visit Laxus and his Team before I go. Since we didn't have a chance to speak before I leave I wanted to tell them goodbye even though they probably won't here me. Can you let the rest of the Guild believe that I'm with Natsu and the others? I don't believe I can endure another goodbye. I now it would be better to tell them in person but right now I just can't...", Lucy smiles sadly and broken.

"I understand, by saying goodbye to Laxus and the others even though they probably don't hear you, you did tell the Guild goodbye in some way. And even though I now they will be sad when say find out that you are on you own and didn't say goodbye I understand you and will respect your wish.", Master smiles just as sadly as Lucy back at her.

"Thank you Master, if they should ask you there is a letter for the Guild in the box that will explain everything to them.", the still standing Lucy hugs Master one last time before she leaves his office.

Both of them are crying, both of them hoping for the best in the future and both of them hoping that her pain will someday go away.

* * *

After leaving Masters office Lucy makes her way to the infirmary. There she places a chair in the middle and begins speaking.  
She tells them about everything that happend in the Guild recently and what happend this morning, how hurt she is. It feels really good to just let it all out even though the people can't answer her, but this makes it partly even better. The only thing she didn't tell them about is Aquarius, this is the one thing that hurt to much to speak about.

After telling them everything and waiting for the tears to stop she stands up to leave for her first job.

"I'm sorry that we didn't have a chance to speak before I leave, but I have to do this right now. I do hope that when I get back we all can be friends, I always wanted to get to know you better. So hopefully you want to become friends too. Don't take to long to wake up you four, there are people in the Guild who waits for you and misses you! Maybe we will see each other per coincidence on my journey... Bye Laxus, Freed, Evergreen and Bixlow!", Lucy gives each of them a short kiss on the cheek and leaves the room.

Going down to the bar again she tells Mira that she will leave on a job alone and that Master approved already.

And with that Lucy leaves the Guild to go on her own journey.


	4. Chapter 4

So many ideas and so little time to write...

Tell me what you think about my present ideas.

And now without further ado, on with the story.

* * *

Arriving at the train station Lucy sees that she has three hours before her train leaves to Scilla. Seeing that she has so much time, Lucy decides to go in the forest near the station to open the presents from her father and maybe speak with Loke and Capricorn about her training.

Finding a nice spot Lucy settles down and summons Virgo for the presents. After giving Lucy the presents Virgo goes back to the Spirit World and hopes that whatever is in these presents they can cheer her up a bit.

"Open Gate of the Lion and Goat, Loke and Capricorn!", Lucy chants.

"Lucy my love! Did you miss me? Your prince is back!" Hello Miss Lucy, what can I do for you?" "Hello you two. I was hoping that we can start on making a plan for my training? I just wanted to have this done before I start unpacking the presents but if this is not a good moment we can do it at another time."

Her Spirits settle down next to her on the ground to signal that they have time.

"Lucy-sama, please tell me what exactly you want. Meaning do you want training like you did before the Grand Magic Games or something different?", Capricorn ask. "Well.. Hmm.. I didn't really thought about that until now. But I think I don't want the same hard training schedule I had before the GMG's. My plan for this journey was to travel around in Fiore, make new friend and find more Keys in my way. And I thought that it would be a good idea to train along the way. I know that I'm not weak but I know that I'm not as strong as some of the strongest members of my guild. So I would like to expand my magic containers so that I can keep your Gates longer open and maybe even more then at this moment. In addition I want to increase my physical strength, maybe Loke can teach me some of his combat moves", Lucy answers him.

"I would love to help you train your combat skills, Princess! And with the physical strength I can help you as well. I can make a plan with Capricorn for your training sessions", Loke suggest.

"And I can help you with your Magic, Lucy-sama. I know that you don't have much time the next days since you are taking four missions but I suggest that you meditate every morning and evening when you don't have a mission on that day. That way you can start to expand your magic containers. Furthermore I would suggest to start with some exercises to build up your strength and to go jog, this too just on these days you don't have to do your mission. As soon as Leo and I will be back in the Spirit World we will start to make an explicit plan for you. And I will speak with Virgo about your food. Healthy food is very important to help you improve", Capricorn added.

"Thank you very much Capricorn. And as long as I can cook my own food on some days that is okay with me. I just love to cook and don't want to stop it complete", a slight smile appears on her face. "That is okay, Lucy-sama, if that is all I will take my leave.", after Lucys nod he bows and disappears.

"Do you want me to leave too, Lucy?", Loke asks as he stands up. "No you can stay if you want. I wanted to ask you if you would stay with me when I open the presents? I think I don't want to be alone right now", Lucy ask a little sheepishly.

"If that is what you want, I will stay." "Thank you Loke!"

With that said Loke sit back down right next to Lucy. Meanwhile Lucy takes the first present and noticed for the first time that every present had a note attached.

"Well this looks like a book, I wonder what kind of book would my father give me as a present..." "Lets find out Princess!", Loke beamed excited like a kid on Christmas. "You do know that this are my presents not yours? But yes, lets start."

 _Dear Lucy,_

 _I wish you all the best to your birthday!_

 _I know that I never really supported your magic but now I now that this is what you love. That is something you have in common with your mother, she loved her magic and especially her Spirits. I found this book between her things, I believe she wanted to give this to you when you are older. This book will help you learn more about your magic. I really hope that it's not to late for this book and you already know everything that is written in here._

 _Your Father,_

 _Jude Heartfilia_

"Wow Lucy, I didn't know that there was still a copy of this book! We all thought that it was long gone. When I remember correctly you will find facts about all the Spirits and their skills in this book. But that's not all, there should be some spells for Celestial Mages inside too. This will be a perfect help for your training, when you can perform the spells inside you should be able to fight with out us Spirits out." While Loke rambles Lucy just sits there and stares down at the book in her hands.

After a few minutes Lucy squeals and starts to look through the book like crazy with sparkling eyes. This reaction makes Loke beam, happy that his Princess reacts like she would have done before Tartaros.

"Princess... Lucy... Lucy!" "Oh Loke.. What do you want?" "Well... do you want to look through this book now and open the other presents later or you could read the book on the train and open these other presents now?" "How much time do we have before the train departs?" "I would say we should go to the station in two hours or to be safe a bit earlier"

The only answer Loke gets is a sigh. Lucy sets the book down beside her and grabs the next present, a small box.

 _Dear Lucy,_

 _I wish you all the best to your eighteens birthday!_

 _T_ _his is something I found between your mothers things. It had a little note with an eighteen on it, so I believe she wanted this as a present for your birthday when you turn eighteen. I really don't now what this is, it looks like a Gate Key but it's no silver or Gold Key. It looks like diamond but I never heard of this kind of Key. I hope you find out what this Key is and use it._

 _Your Father,_

 _Jude Heartfilia_

Lucy rips the present open, eager to see this new Key. When she finally has the Key in her handy she stars mesmerized at it. Her father was right, it looks like a Key made of diamond. But there is not just diamond, there a small stars and these stars move through the Key. It looks truly beautiful, so beautiful that she can't stop looking at it. Loke is just as astounded as her, he knows this Key and again he didn't know that her mother had one from this set.

"You mother was truly an astounding mage. Do you know what this Key is? As far as I know nobody was able to call one of these Spirits in a very long time!", Loke interrupts Lucy's staring. "No, I never heard of a Diamond Key before. What Spirit does is call? Do you think I'm able to call the Spirit?" , before Lucy can ask more questions Loke stops her. "Yes of course I know what Key this is. Your father is right, this is a Key made of diamond. The Diamond Keys or Fairy Keys as some ca..." "Fairy?! Did you just say Fairy Key? Does that mean this Spirit is a Fairy? Are there more?", Lucy practically sits on Loke's lab, since after every question she moves closer to him.

For a moment Loke just stares with wide eyes at her, then shakes his head to wake up from his stupor.

"Oh my Love, I knew, you want me just as badly as I want you! Lets elope and never come back, just you and me", Loke smirks at her. Just now Lucy realize their position, blushes madly and scrambles back. This of course leaves Loke laughing on the floor.

"Stop laughing at me!", she pouts and turns away. "Sorry Princess but your face...", and Loke laughs again. Lucy puffs her checks an cross her arms.

After a few minutes she huffs and grabs the new present.

 _Dear Lucy,_

 _I wish you all the best to your birthday!_

 _I_ _found this on my travels. Since it looked like the Key from your mother I thought you could use it. Sadly I still don't know what exactly these Keys are but I believe you can figure this out._

 _Your father,_

 _Jude Heartfilia_

And again Lucy stares mesmerized at the Key. This time instead of small stars there are flashes of lightning.

"Loke! Stop laughing and look! My father found another Diamond Key! This time there is lightning! Well I think this at least answers one of my questions, there are more. But how much? Loke, come on tell me! I want to know!" And again the endless questions starts..

"Okay, okay. I will tell you! First things first, yes I said Fairy Keys. Meaning with these Keys you can call upon Fairies. As far as I know there are eight Diamond Keys. You probably already guessed that the Key from your mother is the Key for the Star-Fairy. His name is name is Astro. The other Key is for the Thunder- or Lightning-Fairy, his name is Taryn. As I already said has it been a very long time since a Celestial Mage was able to call upon these Spirits. So long that they have been forgotten. I'm sorry to say but I believe that even with how strong you are, it will be hard to call these Spirits. It would be best to wait a bit and train before you try it, because even if you are able to call the Spirit it will be very draining and you couldn't hold the Gate open for very long.", Loke answers even though he wished he had ha different answer for her.

He sees how her face falls but just as quickly she smiles again. "Well than I have a even better reason to expand my magic containers!"

Loke look with a bit of awe at his princess, she just has this gift to always see the positiv things. He is happy that Lucy somewhat has brighten up again.

"Right now I can't chance that.. so on with the other presents!"

 _Dear Lucy,_

 _I wish you all the best to your birthday!_

 _Even though I know that you have your whip and your Spirits I thought that this could help you in case your opponent is directly in front of you. The salesman told me that this dagger is especially for Celestial Mages. He himself sadly didn't know how to use it but I'm sure your Spirits can help you with that._

 _Your father,_

 _Jude Heartfilia_

"Loke do you know how to use this in combination with my magic? Is it similar to my whip?", Lucy asked as she looks at the beautiful dagger. The dagger is dark blue but has between blade and hilt and at the end of the hilt a golden star. In the middle of each star is a dark blue Lacrima.

"I don't really know much about weapons but we could ask the Spirits king.. Oh I almost forgot! The reason I came to your apartment earlier... The Spirit king wants to see you. But don't worry, I already told him that you are doing four jobs and your trip to Tenrou after they are finished. He told me that we can bring you to the Spirit World when you are done with the missions." "How could you... Oh, I know why you forget to tell me sooner. Then we need to wait or maybe we find out on our own. Do you know what he want from me?" "No, he told me that it would be a surprise." "Ohh, I wanted to know", Lucy pouts.

Seeing that she can't chance this Lucy grabs the next present.

 _Dear Lucy,_

 _I wish you all the best to your birthday_!

 _When I saw these in a shop I just had to think about you. They match you perfect. I don't know if they have any magic but I just needed to bye them for you. Hopefully they are to your liking._

 _Your father,_

 _Jude Heartfilia_

"Your father has a really good taste! They will look beautiful on you, princess. I'm not completely sure but I think that these stones are little Lacrimas. And these are Lacrimas than they should increase your magic. Probably not much but with these it should be a bit easier to call us Spirits and you should be able to hold the Gate open for a bit longer. It's really not much but I think the magic was just a little extra and not the purpose of these earrings."

While Loke speaks Lucy exchanges her old earrings with these new ones. Quite happy with the choice her father made, magic or not.

"I guess I will find out if you are right or not. And now the last!"

 _Dear Lucy,_

 _I wish you all the best to your birthday!_

 _You are missing for six years now and I still believe that you will come back. Sadly I don't know if I will still be alive when you are back. I still have a few months maybe even a few years but I don't want you to be alone when I'm gone. I know that you have your Guild and Spirits so you are never really alone. But I know that I left you alone after your mother died and I'm very sorry for that. I'm not completely sure if this really works but it says that this will give you an partner for live. From the description it sound a little bit like your Spirits but you don't need to hold open a Gate. Once called the being will stay for ever at your side. It also says that you don't know what being you will get until you speaks the spell. It says the being will answer your call and you know what name you need to call at the end of the spell._

 _I call thee forth,_

 _protector and friend,_

 _help me in my time of need._

 _To never be alone again,_

 _I beckon you to me side,_

 _to be your friend as you are mine._

 _Your father,_

 _Jude Heartfilia_

At the end of the letter Lucy can't stop the few tears that escaped her eyes. She really hoped that these is no fake. Then even though she has her Spirits, they can't be always by her side. So it would be really nice to have a partner by her side that will never leave her. She always envied the Dragonslayers for their exceeds and sometimes wished she had something like that too.

So without looking to Loke Lucy takes the crystal clear Lacrima in her hands and concentrates on her magic.

"I call thee forth,  
protector and friend,  
help me in my time of need.  
To never be alone again,  
I beckon you to my side,  
to be your friend as you are mine.  
Cerberus."

Lucy stares in awe at the black smoke already feeling the connection to her new friend. For many this smoke would look frightening but Lucy feels the happiness from the being and can't stop the smile appear on her face. The smile never falters, even as the smoke disappears and there sits a big scary looking dog with tree heads.

Loke on the other hand steps a few steps back and can't stop the slightly fearful expression on his face. A few seconds later the three headed dog didn't move to attack and Loke slowly feels how calm and happy Lucy is. With that he steps back next to his princess and waits for the next actions.

Lucy slowly walks over to the dog with outstretched hand. She holds her hand to the dog to sniff her and after a few more seconds the head in the middle moves for to let her pet him. Having the permission to pet them Lucy rises her other hand and begins petting the other two heads. Seeing as no head pets him, the middle head moves forward to rub it gently against her stomach in affection. For both, Lucy and Cerberus, it feels like they have known each other for a very long time. There is this connection between them.

On the side Loke stares with his mouth agape at the scene before him. The scary looking dog is just so gentle with his Master that he too goes slowly to him. Locking with one head eyes he knows that he too can pet them.

So the three of them stand there cuddling and petting for a few minutes.

"Hello you must be Cerberus. My name is Lucy Heartfilia, I'm the one who called you. I really hope we can become the best of friends. This guy next to me is Loke, one of my Celestial Spirits and one of my best friends. All my Spirits are my friends and I hope you all will get along really well!", Lucy smiles brightly, for the moment completely forgotten what happend this morning.

"Hello Lucy, we too hope that we will become the best of friends. And all your friends are our friends too. As you know we are called Cerberus. We are a Hellhound that guards the entrance to the World of the dead. It has been a very long time since someone called us as their friend and we are very happy that you don't seem to be scared of us. Even though we are called Hellhound that doesn't mean that we are bad or something like that. You should know that we can turn in to a puppy form, both this form an the puppy form can transform into one with just one single head. Furthermore we have a human form, the human form needs our magic so that we can't stay forever as a human. But there is no really difference for us if we are a puppy or not, we can freely decide which form we choose and switch as often as we want. In all forms we can speak telepathically with you. We don't really have a magic ability but we are strong, fast and have enhanced senses.", the head in the middle tells Lucy.

"Wow that was quite a bit of information. Would it be okay to show me all you forms?", Lucy asked surprised.

With that Cerberus starts to show Lucy all his different forms. At his human form Lucy can't stop the blush on her checks, since he didn't have a shirt on and looks really hot with his glowing red eyes, dark brown hair and that sixpack. The last form he shows her is his puppy form with just one head. After that the three of them sits back down on the floor comfortably and just cuddle.

"Oh shit!"


	5. Chapter 5

"Lucy?! What's wrong?"

"The train!", with that Lucy jumps up and sprints to the train station, leaving the other two behind.

Cerberus transforms in his big form with just one head and runs after her. Loke being the only one to think about it grabs the presents and runs after them.  
Because of the sprint they made it in nearly half the time to the station. Arrived at the station Lucy buys two tickets and all three of them search for an empty compartment. After finding one, Cerberus once again transforms in his puppy form and lays on Lucy's lap, with Loke on the seat across from her. Lucy begins to relax and wonder what she should do on the two hour train ride.

"My presents!", suddenly Lucy begins to panic. "Don't worry princess, I brought them with me. Do you want the book an start reading?"

The thought of the book brings Lucy's eyes to shine brightly and she nods eagerly. Having the book finally in her hands she starts reading immediately and at the same time to pet Cerberus once again.

The first part just as Loke said, consists of the facts about all the Celestial Keys, even the Diamond Keys are listed. Since Lucy knows almost everything about the Silver and Gold Keys, thanks to her mother, she starts with the Diamond Keys.

 _Diamond Keys, other known as Fairy Keys, consists of a set with eight Keys. With each Key you can call a Fairy with a different element, as example there is a Water or Lightning Fairy. Of course there are more Fairies from every element, than the one from the Keys. But know that the Fairies disappeared a long time ago from Earthland. Nobody knows where they are now. They disappeared about the same time as the great war between Dragons and Humans. The Fae where peaceful and wanted to help the humans but they didn't want there whole race to be killed in the war. So they made a deal with the Celestial Spirit King, the Fae would retreat and one worthy Fairy from each element would become a Celestial Spirit to help the Humans.  
Know that the Diamond Keys need much more magic to open the Gate as the Gold Keys. You could compare it with opening three Gold __Keys at the same time without a problem. The good thing is, once you opened the Gate and the Fairy appeared they mostly use there own magic in the fight._

 _The Diamond Keys have another very useful feature. If you are strong enough and are able to call another Gold Key while one Diamond Key is already fighting, than this Gold Key can mix it's attack with their element. For example, Lightning Fairy and Sagittarius, Sagittarius can power up his arrows with lightning. The next step would be to give the element to one Gold Key without opening the Diamond Key. This will be explained in the spell section.  
Beware that this is not proven, merely passed down information and summarized in this book.  
_

Seeing as Lucy has at the moment the Keys of the Star- and Lightning-Fairy she flicks through the next pages to read the facts about them.

 _Star-Fairy, Astro. Wanted to help the humans since a Dragon killed his wife in the war. Even thou the Dragons killed his wife he never wanted revenge, he just wanted to help so that no other person, if Fairy or Human, needed to feel what he felt. His magic his the Star-magic, meaning that he can command the stars themelves and use their energy. He is strongest when the stars are seen._

 _Lightning-Fairy, Taryn. He was the prince from his element and became a Spirit because he viewed it as his duty to help others. As he is the prince he doesn't have just the normal lightning. He can create different kinds of lightning, for example blue lightning. Each different kind has different features, the blue lightning would be cold._

"On to the spells! I wonder what kind of spell there are!", Lucy practically jumps from excitement in her seat. The jumping caused Cerberus to almost fell of Lucy's lap so he decided to switch to Loke.

 _Before you can learn any of these spells you need to train to direct your magic to different parts of your body. A Celestial Mage normally directs her magic through her body directly to her Keys. It would be best to start with medit_ _ation to get a feeling for the own magic and to better control it. It is not easy to switch from Holder-Type- to Caster-Type-Magic, since the magic now needs to be directed to different parts of the body and there the magic needs to be changed in the form of the spell. This happens mostly over your own imagination, meaning, you need to imagine what your spell should look like. You need to see the outcome before your inner eye, only then the spell will take it's effect. And even if your imagination is perfect, that doesn't automatically mean that the spell works out they way you want it. For that you need: perfect control over your own magic, the perfect imagination and of course a lot of training. At first it will take some time before the spell will work but after enough repeats it will happen faster and faster._

 _I advise to learn the following spells in listed order: Star Beam, Shooting Star, Starlight, Star Wings, Star Fall, Meteor Shower.  
_

 _Star Beam: This spell lets you shoot a beam of stars from your hands.  
Direct your magic to one of your hands or both hands and imagine a star in your hand for the start. Try to just hold this star in your hand for a while. When you can hold the star in your hand, imagine a constant beam from this star in one direction. Right now the beam shouldn't do any damage and is more like a flashlight. In the next step you ad heat to the star in your hand. The heat will not hurt yourself, but you should be able to feel the heat. The heat don't need to be always the same, you can differ the heat, for different purposes. (Do you want to warm something or burn? All this is possible. The most used form of heat for this spell is the heat of the stars, a heat that is hotter than every fire) Again, like without heat, the next step is the beam from your hand.  
It is not possible to change the direction of the beam once the beam has left your hand, so be careful in wich direction you shoot. The beam will continue to fire as long as you supply the needed magic.  
When you have enough control over this spell you can hold the stars in each hand and attack with them in combat to enhance your hits. Next step would be to send the stars to your feet so that you can enhance your kicks too._

"We will arrive shortly at our next destination. All passengers, who wants exit in Scilla, please get ready!" Lucy jumps startled in her seat at the sudden announcement, "Oh wow, that was fast!"

"Come on Lucy, we need to get out and find a hotel for you to stay.", Loke informs her. "Yeah you're right. But maybe you should go back to the Spirit Realm. I know that you switched to your own power at some time so you must be drained right now. And since I have Cerberus I will not be alone, so you should really go and rest. I promise you that I will call you to the job!", Lucy smiled at him, slightly concerned that he overworked himself to stay at her side.  
"If that is what you wish princes,s then I will take my leave. See you tomorrow at your job, my love!" And with that Loke disappeared.

Lucy takes Cerberus in her arms and starts searching for a hotel.

"Hey Cerberus, can I call you Cer? That is a bit shorter and the people won't question why I call a Hell Hound. Oh, and maybe you should change in you human form. I don't know if dogs are allowed in the hotel.", Lucy asked. "If you want to, you can call me Cer. And yeah that is a very good Idea, let's look for a place where I can change without somebody seeing it.", Cer answered. "Alright! Oh wait! Maybe we should buy you a shirt before you change.." "Ohh but earlier you liked to look at my shirtless body, if your reaction is anything to go by.", he teased her and immediately Lucy blushed again with the memory of his body.

"Well yeah.. I mean no! Whatever! We need to buy a shirt for you!", Lucy stuttered. And with that she turns around and stomped away, leaving Cer behind. Cer just grinned, still in his puppy form which makes it kind of creepy, and followed her.

To get it done quickly, Lucy just buys him a simple withe shirt matching to his blue-jeans. After paying they search for an empty place and Cerberus changes in his human form. Lucy again can't stop the blush and hands him the shirt quickly. Sadly, for Lucy, the shirt is quite formfitting and you can still see his sixpack.

On their way they get many looks so Lucy speeds up, not liking the attention right now.

"How do you want to sleep? Do we need to rent a room with two beds or just one and you sleep in your puppy form? You said, that the human form needs your magic, that means you can't stay the entire night like this or not?", Lucy asked him, already counting the money.

"Well if I wanted to, I could stay the night in my human form but I think I change in my puppy form and share the bed with you. I want some more cuddle-time if that is okay with you?", Cer answered now a bit shy. "Of course you can cuddle with me! I'm more than happy with that!", Lucy grins back. At her answer Cerberus can't stop his own happy grin and the light blush on his checks.

On their search for a hotel Cerberus starts asking some questions regarding Lucy's job. Finally having found a hotel they rent a room with just one bed.

"Hey Cer, do you want to go out to eat or should we call the room service?" "If it is okay with you, I would like to go out to eat. Maybe we can start looking for some clues for your job? I now you will start the job tomorrow but looking won't harm.", Cer suggests. "Good idea!"

After changing her clothes, the two makes their way out of the hotel to search for a restaurant.

Seeing nothing unusual, they have a nice evening with delicious food. After eating they go back to the hotel.

"Open Gate of the Maiden, Virgo!" "Hello Princess, what can I do for you?" "Could you bring me my bag? And the Com-Lacrima?", Lucy asked her. "Of course Princess!", and with that Virgo vanishes back to the Spirit World. A few minutes later she is back with Lucy's bag in her hands. "Will that be all, Princess? Or is it punishment time?", Virgo asked with her usual stoic face. "Yes, that would be all, thank you Virgo! And no, no punishment!"

Before Lucy can say anything to Cer he begins to laugh. "Punishment? I didn't know that this is something you like Lucy. But if you want to maybe we can make a deal to make you happy and live your fantasies? Is there a special kind of punishment you prefer? Or can I make my own choice how I want to be punished? I did see your whip.. maybe...", while he speaks Lucy's face gets redder and redder until she puts Erza's hair to shame. "Stop! Oh god... I... I don't do punishments! That is just the way Virgo is! But maybe for you I will make an exception! I will take a shower now!", Lucy interrupts him totally embarrassed. Taking her bag Lucy all but sprints to the bathroom and closes the door behind her.

In the bathroom Lucy hears Cer muttering something about weird Spirits and punishments, while a laughs because of her reaction.

After a relaxing shower Lucy steps out of the bathroom and sits down on the bed. "If you want to, you can take a shower now Cer. I will call my Guild Master in the meantime to let him know that I will start my mission tomorrow." Cerberus just nods and vanishes in the bathroom.

Lucy pours some of her magic in the Lacrima to call Master. "Lucy my child, I haven't thought that I will hear from you so soon again. You just left today after all.", Master grins happily at her. "Hey Master, yeah I know, I thought so too. But I'm already at my first destination and will start my mission tomorrow. And since you wanted me to call you before and after each job I thought I that I will tell you now.", Lucy smiles back at him.

 _It's good to see her smile again. She does seem a bit happier than when she left us. I wonder what happend in the time.._

"You seem a bit happier than this morning. Did something happen?", Master just can't stop the question.

 _Huh.. He is right, I feel a bit better! Cer does really help! A good thing that Father found him for me. I think that was the best present. I know I have my Spirits and will never really be alone, but to have someone beside me at all times is really great!_

"Yeah something happend! I don't know if I ever told you but my Father send me every year a present as long as we were on Tenrou. And before my train left, I decided to finally open them. And these presents did make me happy! They were all very thoughtful of him and I know that in the ende he accepted me for who I am!" Lucy grins happily back at him. Just thinking about all these presents makes her even more happy.

"That's good to hear, my child! Will you tell me what these presents are?", Master asked curious. "Hmm.. I think I will tell you some but not all of them. One of these presents was a book about Celestial Magic! These books hold all the facts about the Spirits and some spells for Celestial Mages. I can't wait to begin learning these spells! Then some earrings, but right now we are not sure if they are magic or not. And the last I will tell you right now is a dagger, according to the salesman, this dagger is specifically for Celestial Mages. Loke didn't know how I can use the dagger with my magic but we will search for answers." Lucy answers him brightly.

At her answer Masters mouth gaps wide open and he just stares at her. After a few minutes recollects himself and begins speaking again, "A book? With spells for Celestial Mages? I didn't know something like that exists. I thought your Urano Metria was the only one. How many spells are there? What kind of spells are the spells? An..." Lucy interrupts Master with her giggles. "Heh, Master calm down...I will answer your questions. As I said, yes a book with spells for Celestial Mages. I too didn't know that something like this exists. If I remember correctly there are six spells in this book. And before you ask, no I will not tell you the name of these spells. That would destroy the surprise, but I think I will show you some of them when I have trained with them per Lacrima. And sorry Gramps but I will need to end the call now. I need my rest for my first solo mission tomorrow!"

"Alright Lucy, don't forget to call when you are done with your job!" They both smile a goodbye and then breaks the connection.

Just as Lucy sets the Lacrima down, Cer comes back from his shower, "Well what a great timing. Why didn't you tell him about me or the other presents you got?" "It's seems like you listened, so you should know the answer to your question. But like I said, I want it to be a surprise for when I meet someone from my Guild the next time. And I think it's a lot funnier to let them meet you in person without knowing about you beforehand.", she replies. Cer just nodded in understanding and changes to his puppy form before jumping on the bed.

Lucy turns out the light and lays down in the bed, lifting the blanket so that Cer can crawle beside her in bed. "Good Night, Cer." "Night, Lucy."

Cuddling together, Lucy falls asleep with a smile on her face and Cer purrs in contentment.


	6. Chapter 6

"Happy.. go away.. that tickles..", Lucy moans as she wakes up the next morning, sleepily trying to wipe away the fur that is in her face. Surprised that she didn't feel the tears she always has from her Nightmares.

 _This is probably the first night since Tartaros that I didn't have a Nightmare. Must be, because I'm not alone!_

 _I know that I was sad that I woke up these last weeks without them but this fur is really irritating... Was his fur always this soft? Wait... Happy can't be here... He left with Natsu... That's right, they left me. They just left, without a proper goodbye. Natsu... you are... were my best friend and just left me behind! And now I'm all alone... Wait! That's not true! When they are gone, where is this fur coming from? Ohhh... It's Cer..._

With that last thought a smile spread across her face, happy to have someone by her side. Opening her eyes, Lucy is greeted with dark brown fur, wanting to cuddle some more she brings Cerberus closer and begins to pet him. At the same time Cer wakes up slowly and begins to purr, shifting as closely to her as he can.

The both of them stay in bed for a few more minutes until they need to get up. "I believe we should start on that job of yours Lucy..", Cer tells her. "Yeah you're right, then come on, let's get ready and head out to the Mayor of this town."

After they get dressed and had some breakfast they made their way to the Mayor, Cer again in his human form.

"Hey Cer, I know you probably want to help me but can you stay back and just intervene when there is no other possibility? I want to see what I can do on my own. And this way I will find out what I need to train the most.", Lucy asked him. "Of course I can do that. It would be best if I change my form, then nobody will suspect anything." And with that he changes back in his puppy form and jumps happily beside Lucy to the Mayor. Lucy smiled down to him in respond.

Arrived at the house from the Mayor, they knocked and Lucy tells them that she is there for the job.

After getting the needed information, they head out in search for the rogue Celestial Mage. Hoping to find his hideout they want to begin their search in the outskirts of the town. That is until they hear a scream and immediately made their way in that direction.

"Help! Somebody help! He is here again!", at that they both increase their speed. Lucy wanting to prepare herself for the oncoming battle calls Loke.

"Loke, please, try not to hurt his Spirits to much okay? We both know they probably don't want to hurt these villagers but have no choice in the matter. I just hope for him that he doesn't mistreat his Spirits...", Lucy gains this certain scary aura at the thought of abused Spirits. If there is one thing that Lucy doesn't tolerate and can't forgive than it's to use Celestial Spirits as tools and abuse them. "I will do my best! I assume you want to fight the mage and I will hold of the Spirits so they can't attack to easily? What about Cerberus?", he agreed. "Lucy asked me to stand aside so she can test her own skills. I will only fight if there is a need to." he answers for Lucy.

A few minutes later they finally arrive at a little courtyard with a small fountain in the middle. There they see a man wearing a dark cape hiding his face and holding a woman at her neck. Behind them stands a man doing nothing to help her.

"Let the woman go! I warn you! And you, Sir, step aside!", Lucy yells at them. The man shakes his head as if would wake up from sort of trance and the mage laughs wickedly before he drops the woman to the floor. She immediately scrambles to her feet, grabs the mans wrist and runs to a save place.

"So I see the Mayor has finally called for help? Let's see what you can do then! Oh I see, you have quite the collection of Keys... Just so you know, after I beat you I will take your Keys!", he threatens. "I will never let you have my Keys! Loke!", Loke nods and they attack.

"Open Gate of the Fox, Vulpecula!", the mage called out. In front of them appeared a sweet looking small nine-tailed fox. She had beautiful and soft looking white fur along with silver eyes. Before either Lucy or Loke could say anything the mage begins to rant, "Not this form! Are you stupid?! Change to your other form and do something useful!" At this Lucy glared at the mage and begins her attack with her whip.

Meanwhile the little fox turned into a beautiful and cute little girl. She had long white hair with fox ears on top of her head, her eyes are still a fascinating silver. She wears a loose off-shoulder dress in white with some silver lining.

"Long time no see, Vul! I hate to fight you and we both know that your powers won't work on me so I need to distract you so that you can't use them on Lucy. You know, Lucy asked me to not hurt the Spirits I need to fight, cause she knows that we probably know each other and don't want friends to fight and hurt each other." Vulpecula hearing this had wide eyes and her mouth agape. But with one look to her Master, her eyes become determinate even though they still held a hint of sadness to them. "It seems that your own Master is very kind, Leo. And I too hate to fight you but we both know that I don't have a choice. If my Master would see me refuse to fight.. I don't want to know what he would do to me..." With that said she tries to attack him. But Loke as the Leader of the Zodiac and with his advanced fighting skills just dodges every one of her attacks without much effort.

A little further away Lucy engages the dark mage in her own battle. At first just with her whip but soon she tries to fight him in hand to hand combat. Lucy knows that this is not her normal fighting style but since she wanted to know how good she is there is no better change to try it out then now. While she is fighting Lucy realizes quickly that she is relatively good at dodging but has a hard time to land a hit on her own.

The dark mage is rather impatient and grabs for another Silver Key. "Open Gate of the Hero, Perseus!" Out of his Gate steps a man, looking just how you would imagine a Hero, bare chested with one of these armor skirts, in one hand a sword and in the other a shield. On a belt around his hips hangs a rather large bag.

Lucy steps back and calls for Taurus. "Taurus, please just block his attacks and try to lead him away from me so that I can focus on the mage!", Lucy tells him before he has a change to comment on her body.

In the mean time the mage sees that Vulpecula is no match for her opponent and send her back, but not without a warning for punishment. Lucy seeing the fear in the little girls eyes, attacks him with new found determination and a lot of anger. She throws punches and kicks at him, trying to land as many hits as possible before he wakes up from his surprise and fights back.

"I hate mages like you! How can you treat your own Spirits like this?! Threatening them with punishment although it was clear from the beginning that she had no real chance against her opponent? At the end of this fight I will free them from you, I promise you this!" Lucy growled at him, her eyes blazing with rage.

The furious look in her eyes scared the other mage. In addition, he realizes that he is running low on magic power. His opponent on the other hand looks like she could go like this for hours. Seeing this as his last change to either defeat the blonde girl or to at least escape he calls his last Spirit out.

"Open Gate of the Firebird, Phoenix!", out of the Gate blazes some flames and as the flames dies down a beautiful bird is left behind. His feathers shimmered gold and red, his wings looked like they were on fire and glowing gold eyes are looking at his Master, waiting for a command. "Attack her with fire!", he screams at the bird while he runs away from Lucy to avoid the fire.

Sadly Lucy has no time to dodge the fire, so she throws her arms up to protect her face and instinctively closes her eyes.

"Lucy!", both Loke and Taurus screams in shock as they watch the fire race in her direction, both to far away to protect her. Both stared wide eyed at the scene before them, the fire never reaches her. With her hand motion, water flows from the fountain in her direction and forms a protective wall in front of her. Even though her shirt once again covers the Aquarius Sign on her collarbone, you can see a slight blue shine through the shirt.

The dark mage stares in a daze at the water wall, then shakes his head and tries to run away as long as the others are occupied and the blonde girl still had her eyes closed. Both his Spirits disappeared as he started running, his magic being to low to hold their Gates open any longer.

Lucy, feeling no fire burning her, opens her eyes slowly and stares in wonder at the wall in front off her. Feeling a similar magic to Aquarius Lucy looks around, hoping that Aquarius somehow has come through her Gate, but knows that this is impossible.

 _Wow, this is really just like Aquarius magic! This feels just like the time after I broke her Key and her water protected me from Jackal. I thought this was a onetime thing, but maybe there is more to this.. Hmm.. I wonder.._

Lucy extended her hand in the direction of the fleeing mage and the water follows her motion. This brings a smile to her face. _Thanks Aquarius! I don't know exactly what this is but I will find out, I promise!_ The man, not seeing the water thrown at him, is hit in his back and falls down.

Lucy thinking the fight is over thanks both her Spirits and sends them back with a smile. She makes her way to the dark mage to chain him up. But as soon as she leans over him, he springs up and wraps a rope around her writs. Lucy feeling somewhat strange jumps back and grabs one of her Keys, ready to summon them.

"Open Gate of the Goat, Capricorn!", but nothing happend.

"Well well well... Looks like in the end I will be the winner! This rope cancels your magic so that you can't call for your Spirits. And even though I'm out of magic we both know that I'm better at hand to hand combat, especially with your hands unusable.", he laughs cruelly and attacks her. Lucy again doges but he is right, with her hands chained she has no real change to attack him. But Lucy has one more ace up her sleeve and smirks.

"Cer, now!", never was she happier to have her new companion at her side. Cerberus just waiting for her signal, changes in his normal form with his three heads and jumps at the dark mage.

This completely surprises him and he goes down with a big scary dog above him. To scare the mage a little more Cer growls dangerously and bares his teeth at him, as if his blazing red eyes weren't enough. All three heads slowly comes closer to, the middle one opening is mouth as if he would bite off his head every moment.

Lucy comes closer and stands to the right of them, the head closest to her carefully bites through the rope and frees her. Lucy sighs as she feels her magic again, then levels a hard glare at the man on the ground.

The glare in combination with the three heads in front of him is to much and he passes out.

All this happens in a few seconds and suddenly Loke bursts through his own Gate, "Lucy are you alright?! What happend? We all suddenly didn't feel you anymore, and I couldn't open my own Gate!" Loke looks her frantically up and down, looking for some sort of injury, looking very relieved when he found none.

"Everything is alright Loke!", Lucy pats him on the head and hugs him shortly, "He surprised me and had wrapped some magic cancelling rope around my wrists. But luckily I have Cer and he helped me!" Sighing relieved, Loke goes back to tell the other Spirits.

"What a lame excuse for a dark mage...", Cer sighs. "Yeah, but you can be quite scary, particularly in this form. You know I don't have anything against this form but maybe you should change back, I don't want the villagers to be scared of us...", Lucy added.

Looking around Cer noticed the anxious looks he get's and decided it would be best to change in his human form. Hopefully the people will believe that he is a mage who uses transformation magic.

While he transforms in his human form Lucy calls for Virgo to chain the mage up. After that is done they call for the Rune Knights to take the mage into custody.

Lucy, having taken his Silver Keys, decides to make contracts with them, if they want to, while they wait for the Rune Knights to take him away.

"I am linked to the path to the World of Celestial Spirits, now! O Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate. Open Gate of the Hero, Fox and Firebird, Perseus, Vulpecula and Phoenix!" At first all three Spirits are looking around confused, not thinking that their Master had the power to call all three of them at the same time. But then they see him at the ground chained up and the girl they were fighting earlier holding their Keys.

"Hello Perseus, Vulpecula and Phoenix, my name is Lucy Heartfilia and I would like to know if you want to make a contract with me. Your old contract is broken since he goes to prison. If you want to form a contract with me I will promise you to treat just as all my other Spirits, meaning like family, and hope we all can become great friend!", she beams at them.

This make the three Spirits smile in happiness and the all nod at her. "Master, I bel..." "Stop right there, as I told you before, I see my Spirits as friends and family. So please don't call me Master, Lucy is just fine. If you feel uncomfortable with that, call me Princess or Miss Lucy, some of my other Spirits call me like that. But you can come up with other ways to call me if you want to, everything is better then Master. ", she interrupts and smiles kindly at them.

"If that is what you wish, Princess.", Perseus replies and smiles a little brighter at her along with the other two. Vulpecula has changed in her human form and looks with big eyes at her, "Can I call you Lucy-nee?" Hearing that Lucy flinches a bit, cause she remembers Wendy who asked the same thing in her letter. Hoping that Vulpecula didn't see it she answers her, happy that the little girl trusts her enough although they just meet. "Of course you can call me that! Can I call you Vul?", Vulpecula nods at her. Lucy goes down on her knees and hugs the little girl, remembering the fear she has seen in her eyes in the fight, "And just so you know, I will never punish you! No one of you!" At that Vul hugs her back and the other males around them are smiling softly at the sweet scene.

After a few minutes of cuddling Lucy stands up again and starts with her contracts.

Perseus tells her, that he fights with his sword and shield but has knowledge about other weapons as well. And when the mage who holds his Key strong enough he can use the head of the Meduse in is bag to freeze the opponents for a short amount of time, the stronger the mage is, the longer and more opponents he can freeze.

Phoenix asked her to call him Nix, he is best at healing magic but can use some fire magic as well.

Vulpecula tells her that in her human form she can use manipulation magic, again the stronger her mage is the better her manipulation is. In her fox form she is good in spying, since she is so small and her senses are heightened.

All three of them are free when ever Lucy needs them. Vul asked her to just call her out whenever she wants some company, wanting to spend some time with her new nee-san.

After the contracts are made they all go back to the Spirit World to rest. A few minutes later the Rune Knights arrive and take the dark mage with them.

Seeing their job is done, Lucy and Cerberus made their way to the Mayor to tell him the happy news.

Happy to her that his town is finally safe, he gives them the reward and as a bonus gives them a coupon for a free meal at one of the best restaurants in town.

Just as they want to go Lucy remembers something, "Excuse me Sir, but you did write something about serious injuries in your job request. And one of the new Spirits I got is capable of healing, so I wanted to offer my help in healing some of the people if there is need to?" The Mayor looks astonished at her, such a nice girl, having finished the job she is here for and still offers more help.

"I'm not very sure how these injuries are right now. But I would appreciate it if you could go to the hospital tomorrow and ask there? I will call and tell them that you will come by, if that is okay with you?", he suggests. "That's alright with me."

Leaving the house, they made their way back to the hotel to freshen up and call Master Makarov before they go eat.

Pouring some of her magic in the Lacrima Lucy calls Master, Cer again in the bathroom.

"Hello my child, I assume the job went well?" "Yes Master, the job is done. I did have some small trouble but everything went well. I have three new Silver Keys now, the Hero, the Firebird and the Fox.", Lucy answers him. "That is really good to her, my dear. What will be your next step?" "I want to take the next train to Acacia and then hopefully start my next job the day after tomorrow. Any news in the Guild?" "Sadly no news, Laxus and his Team are still out. I really hope they will wake up soon!", Master says sadly. "I believe they will wake up soon, don't worry Master! If they don't wake up before I go to Tenrou I will come by and ask my new Spirit Phoenix to look at them and maybe heal them.", Lucy reassured him. This takes exactly the effect Lucy had hoped for and Master smiled brightly at her.

A few minutes later they end the call and Lucy and Cer go eating.

After their dinner, back in the room Lucy just changes and falls in the bed, immediately falling asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning Lucy again woke up without a Nightmare, all thanks to Cer cuddling up to her. This time though she remembered him and just cuddles a little more with him, before she needs to stand up.

After breakfast they made their way to the hospital to offer their help. Luckily most of the injured, even if serious, were already mostly healed. So Lucy let Nix heal all of them a little bit to help speed up the process. At first the people started to panic because of the way Nix heals but after a short explanation everyone calmed down and let him heal them.

Arriving at the train station they see that the next train to Acacia leaves in one and a half hour. Lucy thinking that this is a perfect moment to start her training searches for a quiet place to meditate.

"Hey Cer, should I call one of my Spirits to spend time with you while I meditate with Capricorn? For example Vul or Plue?", Lucy asked him. "That would be nice but who is Plue?", a confused looking Cer replied. "Ohh... Plue is one of my Silver Keys, he is the Spirit of the Canis Minor, meaning little dog, I always call him to keep me company when I'm alone." Lucy answers him. "Hmm.. Vul I know already, so maybe it would be nice to meet one of your other Spirits.", he smiles at her, hoping he will become great friends with all of her Spirits.

"Then it will be Plue. Open Gate of the Goat and Canis Minor, Capricorn and Plue!" "Puun Pupuun" "Hello Miss Lucy, what can I do for you? And who is this man beside you?", Capricorn asked while bowing. "Hello Plue, Capricorn. I have a little bit time before my train starts, so I thought I can start with meditating. I would like it if you can help me with that, Capricorn? And this is Cerberus, or in short Cer, I thought that Loke would have told you of him. He is a hell hound and my new friend, I hope you will get along well! Plue I want to ask you if you can keep him company? And maybe tell him about our other celestial friends?"

"Pun!" Plue nodded happily while dancing. So Cer again changed in his puppy form, but this time in his normal form with three heads. Lucy told him when they are alone he can change into what ever form he want, just when many people are around she asked him to change in a form with just one head to not scare other people. He is truly happy that she accepts him for who he is and just asks him to change to not scare other people, but isn't scared of him herself. They both begin to play and talk to each other.

In the mean time Lucy settles herself on the floor and waits for instructions from Capricorn.

"Please close your eyes and start breathing slowly and evenly. Try to just focus on your breathing. Ignore the sounds around you, just listen to my voice and your breathing. When you are finished with this, your next step will be to find your magic. Reach into yourself and find the source of your magic. That would be your first origin. If you have found this source try to steadily release your magic. Hold this for as long as possible. I think today it would be best to just work with your first origin, we will add the second origin when you have enough control."

Capricorn observed as Lucy slowly began to release her magic power, her magic manifesting in a golden glow around her body. At first this glow wavers a bit, meaning that she has not completely control over her magic but after a few minutes the glow get steadier, until it's completely steady. He looks proudly down at her, seeing that she has this much control over her magic is quite a big feat. Further he is very proud that she can hold it for this long, it's so much longer then when they trained for the Grand Magic Games. Well this is really no wonder, her calling three Spirits and the Spirit King gave her quite the power up, and now the added three new Silver Keys. Every added Key expands the magic container, Gold Keys more than Silver Keys and of course the Diamond Keys even more than Gold Keys, of course you still need to train to really increase the magic but adding more Keys helps.

The golden glow slowly starts to expand around her and gets brighter, meaning that she is releasing more magic. The magic pressure increased, moving the air around her. Several minutes later Capricorn sees that sweat is slowly forming and that Lucy breathes harder, seeing this as his signal to continue with his instructions he begins speaking.

"Miss Lucy, if you think you can't go any further start to slowly pull back your magic inside your body. When you have safely pulled all your magic back try to pull more magic inside of you, this is the step that will expand your magic containers. You won't be able to pull much extra magic inside of you, since you can't expand your container very much at one time."

After his explanation Capricorn again begins to observe her.

Lucy slowly begins to feel that she can't go on further, so she begins just as instructed to pull her magic back. She sees her magic flow inside of her in golden swirls, thinking how beautiful this is and wishing she could see how it looked on the outside. Feeling all her magic back inside her, she once again reached out to pull more magic back inside of her. And if she thought that before was exhausting than this is on a whole new level. Her own magic flowed back inside of her on its own because that is where it came from. But now she needs to kind of force the magic inside of her and simultaneously will her her magic container to expand, otherwise she couldn't hold this new added magic. Noticing that there is no way to pull more magic inside of her she slowly stops her meditation and falls back in exhaustion, breathing heavily.

Capricorn let her rest for a few minutes before he starts speaking, "I am very proud of you, Miss Lucy. You hold your meditation for nearly a half hour. The incidents, even if rather sadly, which happend lately increased your magic power more than I thought possible. Leo told me of your new Diamond Keys, I believe you just need a few more meditation sessions before you can call them and hold their Gates open for at least a few minutes." At his praise Lucy smiles brightly at him, happy to have improved so much. Her happiness deflates shortly at the mention of the incident which caused her to loose Aquarius, but she pushed these thoughts aside for another time. Not wanting to cry right now.

"You really believe this, Capricorn? Thank you so much, that means a lot to me!", she answered him. "I think we should go back to the train station. Thank you for your help, Capricorn! Plue do you want to go back or stay with us?" "I am happy to be helpful, Miss Lucy. I will take my leave then.", he one again bowed before leaving. Plue replied that he too, would like to go back.

So Cer and Lucy made their way to the train station, on their way they stop to eat a fast lunch.

* * *

Two and a half hour later they arrived at Acacia. Seeing that it's rather late, they decide to start the job the next morning. For now they want to find a hotel and enjoy the town a bit.

"Hey Cer, I think I want to walk to Picea where my next job is. So lets buy some camping stuff before dinner. Maybe we can do some other shopping to? I think it would be nice to have some new clothes, for me and for you. You need more than one outfit even if you will be most times in your dog form. But if you don't want to, you don't have to, I know must guys don't like to go shopping..."

"Naahh... I believe a few hours are okay. And you are right, it would be nice to have some more clothes for myself. And I like the idea of walking to your next job. This will give you some time to train and I can run in the forest in my normal form.", he smiles at her.

So that's exactly what they do. At first they buy all the necessities for camping and then go shopping for new clothes.

"Hmm.. I think I want to change my outfit a bit, but not to much.. But I think I should start to show my Aquarius Tattoo. Maybe this will help me a bit to move on. This is after all something I should be proud of! It's a gift from her, I should not hide it from anyone! Even if it still hurts to think about..", Lucy mumbles to herself. Cer with his good hearing hears it nonetheless, but decides that now is not a good time to ask after seeing her sad face. So he does his best to distract her.

"Hey look Lucy, what's with this shop? Maybe a little change for you? I think I will find here something for me too. Hey I have an idea, you go looking for yourself and I for myself but I will surprise you with some outfits for you?" Lucy didn't know, if he heard her and want to distract her but is grateful anyway, so she nods and smiles at him before disappearing in the shop. Cer sighs before following her relieved that the sadness in her eyes vanished for now.

 _Ohh this is sweet! And this too! And something sexy doesn't hurt sometimes... I wonder what Cer will bring me... I could imagine it's something super sexy.. maybe to sexy for my taste, well I have to wait to find out._

When Lucy has an arm full of new clothes she goes to the changing room.

In the end Lucy's decision falls on one blue lace off-shoulder flare dress, a black ripped high-waist shorts and two new crop-tops, one in dark blue and the other in dark red. The red one has long sleeves.

Now that she had tried on all of her choices she has to wait for Cer.

A few minutes later he arrives. Having decided his own new clothes already he just needs to bring the ones he found for Lucy to her.

 _As I thought, the most of his things a really sexy and very revealing.. But oh wow, how could I fail to see this one?_

Lucy comes out of the changing room with a gold crop-top with a dark blue overlay. "Wow Lucy, you should definitely buy this one! I can't stop looking at you! Heh, I believe this one will help you to many guys.", he winks at her. His compliment brings a heavy blush to Lucy's face and she hurries back to the changing room. Most of the next she tries on are much to sexy for her, so she doesn't even show them. Although two of them she just needs to show.

The first one is dark purple and looks like it's wrapped around Lucy but has a zipper in the middle of the back. When Lucy steps out of the changing room Cer just whistles at her, her blush once again back. Though Cer has a little blush too. Even if this is a little embarrassing Lucy decides to buy it.

The second one is an off-shoulder crop-top completely in black. The front is closed but the back is just laced with many thin strings, you can almost say it's backless.

Stepping out of the changing room Lucy sees Cer with a nosebleed. _Even though he is technically a hell hound he still is male. And with something like this.. Well all males are kind of the same.._ Lucy sighs at his reaction but then remembers her outfit and blushes immediately. Since Cerberus can't really speak right now he just gives a thump up and Lucy disappears again.

Dressed again in her old clothes they go paying, rather Lucy goes paying since she is the only one with money. On their way Lucy finds some black combat boots, which are all the way up to her mid thigh with a small heel but are still pretty comfy. They look similar to the boots she got from Virgo during the Dragon attack at the GMG.

Having found everything they need, Lucy calls for Virgo to store the bags in the Spirit World. After that they go looking for a place to eat dinner. Cer in his puppy form again.

* * *

"Oh look! What do we have here? All alone little girl? You do know this is not really safe for you or not? Me and my friends just want your money. And maybe some fun too? Now that I see you, I say fun too! What do you think guys?", a bulking man appears before Lucy. "Oh yeah, I say we have some fun with her! I can see here a fine piece of ass!" "Yeah and look at these tits!" , two more man said.

Around Lucy and Cer appeared a total of five guys. All of them rather big and bulking but nothing compared to Elfman or Laxus.

Lucy knows that she is really exhausted from the meditation earlier but hoped that she still can call enough Spirits to handle these guys.

"Yeah I think we are going to have fun! Especially when I'm done with beating you up and hand you over to the Rune Knights. I assume you are the group of bandits who is responsible for breaking in and robbing these villagers? And here I thought I need to search everywhere for you. This makes my job a lot easier!", Lucy replies hoping that they didn't noticed her slight fear.

"Oh so you are a mage? Don't get to cocky! After all you are just one little girl, what can you do against five guys alone?", one of the man taunts her.

This though makes her angry, Lucy really hates it when people think that she is weak! Since she doesn't feel any magic and sees no weapons she needs to be careful who she calls.

"Cer, please wait again if possible. Open Gate of the Lion and Ram, Loke and Aries!" "Lucy did you miss me? Your prince in shining armor has arrived!" "So-sorry!"

"Aries, use your Wool Bomb to trap these guys! Loke help me to take them out. But please fast since I'm low on magic from my earlier meditation!", Lucy orders her Spirits.

"Wool Bomb! So-sorry!" "Regulus Impact" "Lucy Kick!" And just like that, they were all knocked out. At this they all sweat dropped, even Aries for once. "Ahh.. Uhh.. Wow.. I didn't see that coming. I thought they would put up more of a fight.. Well thank you anyway, Aries and Loke! Oh and Aries? I didn't introduce you to Cerberus.. So this is Cerberus my new Friend! And Cerberus this is Aries one of my Celestial Spirits and Friends! I hope you will get along!", she smiles at them both.

Aries walks shyly to Cerberus. They both talk for a short time before Aries goes back, due to Lucy's low magic levels.

"I will go back too, my sweet Lucy! Call me whenever you want, for whatever you want!", he winks at her and disappears before Lucy can yell at him.

Lucy still a little bit red turns to Cerberus, finding him looking at her with an amused glint in his eyes, "You have quite the interesting bunch of Spirits."

"Oh, shut up! Better help me with these guys! We need to bring them to the police and then go to the mayor to asked if these were the bandits from our job.", Lucy huffs at him. "Alright... alright... On we go."

They begin dragging the five bandits behind them to the police station but after a short while Lucy has enough and calls Taurus to help them. A few minutes later they arrive and hand over the bandits. The police confirms that these were the bandits and sends them to the mayor for the reward. Telling them that they still need to find the stolen things before the job is finished the police tells them, that they would to it, since they can just question the bandits so that they don't need to search everywhere.

Since it's rather late they walked fast to the mayor to collect the reward. Telling him that the police will search the stolen items after questioning the bandits, Lucy says that she doesn't need the whole reward since she did just some part of the job. The mayor declines and still gives her the whole reward.

* * *

Deciding that they, or rather Lucy, are to exhausted to eat at a Restaurant they go back to the hotel. Arrived they order some room service.

"I'll shower first!", Lucy practically yells and runs to the bathroom. Cer just chuckles at her and waits for his turn.

After dinner Lucy calls Master Makarov and reports him about the surprisingly already finished job. At first he is a little bit angry that she didn't call him before starting but than laughs when he hears the full story. Furthermore Lucy tells him about her plan to walk to her next destination.  
After a little more small talk they end the call.

Lucy again to exhausted to do anything else falls asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow.


	8. Chapter 8

Like I already wrote in my other stories: My exams will start soon sadly I won't have much time to write. So probably I won't be able to update once a week like I normally do.  
It will take me a month before I'm finished with my first exams and then later will come another one. But with just one exam I should have enough time to write regularly again.

* * *

Lucy wakes up to a wet feeling in her face. She scrunches up her nose and tries to wipe it away. But this just leads to having a wet hand too. She slowly blinks her eyes open and is met with a wet tongue directly in front of her. Her eyes widen and before she can react Cer licks her again across the face.

"Eww! Cer what are you doing?", Lucy laughs. Her just looks at her with puppy eyes before gaining a mischievous look in his eyes. He transforms in his human form, of course without his shirt on, and looks down at her.

"I thought I wake you up and which girl doesn't loves it to wake up with a good lick?", he smirks at her before winking.

Lucy blushes furiously and promptly throws him out of the bed. Cer lands with a thud on the floor, looking slightly dumbfounded up at her. At this Lucy can't stop the laugh that blubbles up in her, nearly too ending on the floor. Cer pouts a bit but he can't contain his own laugh for long.

"You're such a perv, Cer! I can't believe you! But well at least I'm awake now. Let's get ready and then head out.", Lucy says while grabbing her clothes for the day before going to take a shower.

* * *

After they both got ready and eat some breakfast in a small cafe, they left the town.

"Hey Cer, is it okay with you when I search for a place to meditate before we make our way to Piccea? Maybe after that we can jog as long as I can go and after a little break, do some exercises. Would that be alright with you?", Lucy asks hopefully. "Of course we can do that! While you are meditating I can just run trough the forest, it's been such a long time since I was able to run at full speed.", he agrees.

So they made their way through the forest in search for a quiet place, making small talk along the way.

Having found a good place just about ten minutes later, Lucy calls for Capricorn. He instructs her to do just as the day before.

Capricorn observes that Lucy has her magic under control a tiny bit faster than yesterday and can hold it a bit longer. But the increase is barely noticeable, what of course is no wonder since she just started yesterday with her training again. But even these little increase means that she is improving. And since this journeys purpose isn't to get stronger, but to find new Keys and start her own adventure this is alright. If she pulls through with meditating two times a day, her improvement will be noticeable really soon. Maybe she even can call upon the Diamond Keys faster than he anticipated.

In the mean time Cerberus changes in his normal three-headed form and scouts the area around Lucy. Looking for any dangers, founding none he starts to run around, relishing in the feeling of finally just running around without a care in the world.

As he decides to run back to Lucy, he starts to think about her. He wonders about the things he heard her say yesterday at the shop. Pondering about the question, if he should ask her about it or leave her be and wait for her to open up to him.  
In the end he decides to wait for a few more days and then ask her, if something like that happens again.

When he arrives back at the clearing, Lucy is in the process of ending her meditation. He watches at the golden glow around her dies down, as well as the air around her starts to get slower.

After having rested enough and asked Virgo to bring her some training clothes, Lucy and Cer starts running in the direction of Piccea.

Lucy realizes that she is fitter than she thought, which probably is because of her constant running on missions with Team Natsu, but still not as good as she hoped. Around fifteen minutes after starting Lucy feels a slight sting in her sides but not so much that it would lead to her stopping. Another ten minutes later she breathes heavily and stopped talking with Cer, still determined to continue.

Cer beside her noticed this and at first tried to encourage her by running a little faster, hoping that she would want to catch up to him as a sort of competition. As he realizes that Lucy is about to collapse if they won't slow down, he does just that. He is waiting for her to ask for a break, but sees that she is stubborn and won't give up until she reaches her limit.

Lucy herself, too, realizes that she probably can't go on much longer, but wants to see how long she can hold this. She was hoping that she at least can jog for roughly a hour. About fifty minutes after starting Lucy stops jogging and continues to go a little further to cool down a bit before collapsing, finally giving up.

Lucy lays there on the ground trying to regain her breath with Cer at her side looking like he didn't even break a sweat at all.

Virgo pops out with some water for both of them. Lucy gulps down the water after being able to somewhat breath normally again.

"This is really not fair! Why aren't you at least a little bit out of breath?", Lucy pouts at Cerberus. He just laughs before answering, "Well, what do you think? I am a Hellhound after all! And I have pretty good stamina, in my normal dog form I would probably be able to carry you for a long time while running."

Lucy just realizing that even though they had spent a few days with each other, she didn't really know much about him. This thought made her sad, she just was so engrossed in her own little world with her own problems that she hadn't thought about asking him more. Angry with herself, she decides to change that right away.

"Lucy? Is something the matter? You look kind of sad there, if this is ab...", Cer starts but is interrupted before he can finish. "Well... You see... I... I just realized something. I am really sorry for paying so little attention to you, Cer! Normally I would have asked you so many questions about you and your abilities but somehow I got all wrapped up in my own problems...", Lucy looks down sadly. "That is alright! Don't worry too much about it, Lucy! I already know that something is bothering you and wanted to give you sometime to yourself. But if you want to speak, I will listen!", he answers quickly before Lucy becomes even more sad. Lucy just smiles at him and thinks about something.

"How about this, lets go a bit farther and we speak some more and tonight before we go sleeping I will tell you about what happend to me?", Lucy suggests. "I think that is a good plan, but didn't you want to do some other exercises after our jog?", he asks her. "Yeah right... I changed my mind. I will do the other exercises this evening before I tell you more about me."

And with that they start to walk in a comfortable pace.

"So Cer, tell me, when we first met you did speak about yourself as if there is more than one personality. But I mean, apart from this one time there was always just you. Well okay, most of the times you were in a form with just one head but I believe that this won't change something about your personality or am I wrong? How come I didn't notice this sooner...", Lucy asked completely embarrassed about her lack of attention. "Oh that, this is just a little joke I came up with. Even though I normally have three heads I have just one personality. It's kind of hard to explain. In my form with three head it's like I myself have three heads and I can control all of these heads at the same time. This is completely normal for me of course, but I think for you hard to understand. It's like some sort of extension when you want to call it like that. But, well in short, I have just one personality even if I'm in this form.", he tries to explain as he changes in is normal form with three heads.

"That's kind of cool! Can you speak with all heads at the same time?" "Technically, yes I can. But most time I won't since this is even for me sometimes confusing. I have no problem with seeing, hearing and smelling with the three heads at the same time and still be able to orientate myself but speaking is harder. And I don't really need it..." Lucy tries to process these information before asking more, "I don't know if this is maybe a stupid question since you told me that you aren't bad and so... but I thought that Hellhounds would look way more scarier! I mean, yeah you are kind of scary in this form right now, but not as much as I thought a Hellhound would be.." "Oh... Could it be that I forgot to tell you about my, you could call it, scary-form? You are right, even though most people already find this form scary I still have my real Hellhound form. If you want to, I can show you this form. But I will tell you that this is a form I personally don't like very much since the most people or generally everyone, no matter if human or animal, associate evil with this form..", he tells her somewhat sadly. "If you don't like this form you don't have to show me, but I would love to see is, since it is after all a part of you!", Lucy reassures him.

Cer looks at her to see if she means this and all he sees in her eyes is curiosity and honesty. So for the first time in a very long time he changes in is Hellhound form, observing Lucy closely.

And changing he did. Before Lucy stands a large beast, the kind of beast you would normally fight in a S-class mission.

His normally dark brown fur changes to black skin with a red pattern all over it. The red looks like flames are directly under is skin and are trying to break free. His claws and teeth are razor-sharp and his tail looks more like a tail from a reptilian than a dog. And lastly his eyes, his normally red eyes changed to black eyes with flames in them. When you look in his eyes, you look directly in black nothingness and at the same time it feels as if you are looking at the Hell-flames themself. As if you are directly in Hell without any escape.  
If you are near enough you can even feel the heat he is radiating now.

But Lucy is more or less unaffected from all this. She just looks at him with awe. Through their bond she still feels his kindness, so this new form doesn't really matter to her. She would admit that if she didn't know this was her Cer, she would be running.

"Wow Cer, you really look scary right now! If I didn't know that this is you I too would be frightened like all these other people. I can understand why you don't like this form. But I will tell you this, I for myself have no problem with this form. So, if you want to, you can change in this form whenever you want. I think in a fight this could be really useful, if you are willing to use it.", she smiles at him.

A few seconds later Cer changes back, still speechless.

They just go on in comfortable silence until Cer starts to speak again. "Thank you, Lucy! This really means a lot to me! Oh and before I forget it, this form, like my human form, requires my magic but more. So yes, I am willing to use this in a fight but I can't use it for a very long time." "Alright, do what ever you are comfortable with!"

After that they just have some small talk, until they reach around evening a nice clearing to camp for the night. They set up camp with the yesterday bought utensils.

Having finished, Lucy calls out Loke for some training.

Loke lets Lucy do some strength exercises before showing her some hand to hand combat moves. They spar to train these moves and to see what Lucy on her own already knows.

Finished with the training, Lucy goes to the small lake nearby to wash herself before making dinner.

After their dinner they get comfortable in front of the little campfire and Lucy tells him everything what happened lately. The fight against Tartaros and her sacrificing one of her Celestial Spirits to save her Guild, that it was Aquarius decision to sacrifice her Key to call the Spirit King and save all her friends. And that she now has this permanent mark on her collarbone, that the Water Magic she used on that one job probably was a gift from Aquarius but that she isn't sure about that. Then she tells him how her Guild slowly stared to rebuild and that Laxus and his Team are still unconscious from inhaling the anti-magic particles. That she told no one from her sacrifice, it still hurt to much to really speak about it with her Guild but somehow she could speak with him about it. And lastly that her Team disbanded for the moment, that two of her friend and Team members spoke with her and told her goodbye. But that she wasn't too sad about this because she thought that she would soon start her own adventure with her best friend, Natsu, to search for his Dragon with all the other Dragon Slayers. And then she tells him about the letters and how hurt she was and still is.

During all this tears were streaming down her face and Cer moved closer to her to wrap her in his arms to offer her some comfort. After Lucy had finished telling him everything and he giving her his own opinion to the different happenings, Lucy feels slightly better. But even though she feels better, the rest of the evening or rather night the two she sit there cuddling with tears still streaming down her face until they go to sleep.

This time Cer doesn't change into his puppy form, since he has a feeling that Lucy needs someone who can hold her right now. And that is what he does, he crawls with her in her bedroll and holds her closely to him until she falls asleep.

Cer knows that he probably won't be able to stay in his human form for the whole night but he plans to stay in this form as long as possible to be able to hold and comfort her.

* * *

The next morning Lucy wakes up with Cer in his normal three headed dog form at her side, curled as good as possible around her. Lucy smiles softly down at him and tries to get up without him waking up to take a bath in the little lake before starting with their breakfast.

Shortly before breakfast is ready Cer pads out of the tent and then changes in his human form to eat with her. Afterwards he takes his own short bath before they really start the day.

Like yesterday Lucy starts with meditation and Cer just freely running through the forest. The rest of the day is practically the same as the day before, apart from the heavy talking before sleep. This night Lucy tells him some stories about her time and adventure with the Guild and especially Team Natsu, even though for today just happy ones, not wanting the day to end like the day before. And Cer tells her something about himself and his past, but mostly he just listens to her stories, loving the way she speaks. There is so much life and love behind her words and the way she can describe things... it's like he was present himself.

* * *

The next day is again the same as the day before and in the evening they arrive at Piccea. There Lucy speaks with the Mayor before searching for a hotel for the night.

And like the other times before starting with a job she call Master to inform him that she will start tomorrow after hopefully hearing this howling herself this night.

And hearing it they did.

They both wake up in the middle of the night to this frightening howling. They immediately understand why no one from this little village was willing to explore this howling. But even though this howling sounds really frightening Lucy can't help herself and feel a little sad. Yes it does sound scary, but if you try to listen behind this scary part you can detect a sadness in this howling, making Lucy wonder what or who would howl like this.

She and Cer agree to start their search early in the next morning, not wanting to risk and go out in the middle of the night.

The howling is heard a few more times before it's silent again and they are able to fall asleep again.


	9. Chapter 9

I am sorry for the long wait and that this is a rather short Chapter compared to all the other ones in this story but I thought that was the perfect place to stop.  
So have fun reading and thanks to all of you who waited so patiently for me to update again.  
Tell me what you think, your comments always brighten up my day!

* * *

Lucy and Cer were wandering through the forest in hopes to find the source of the howling, from the Night before. They are going to the direction the Mayor send them, telling them that most Night the howling came from this direction. Thinking about it the Mayor remembered that in this area are some caves, perfect for making some sort of camp.

Cer is in his normal three-headed form, always running in different directions from Lucy and tries to find a scent they could follow. But he found nothing, it seems as if there hadn't been anyone or anything in a very long time now.

A few hour later they stumbled a cross a little clearing directly in front of a cave and Cer immediately tenses up. "I can hear something inside of the cave, we should be careful. Even though it sounds more like whimpering then really threatening, but you never know... For all we know this could be a trap." "Alright, we will be careful."

Upon entering the cave Lucy is finally able to hear the noises Cer spoke about. And he was right, it sound like a whimper. A whimper so full of pain and sorrow that Lucy can't stop herself from speeding up and is now practically running in the direction she can her the whimpers come from.

And there before her eyes is a sight she hoped she had to never see. There lays a wolf chained to the ground, if you look closely you can make out the beautiful golden fur. Golden fur that is now completely filthy with blood on too many spots.

Lucy can't even imagine what happened to this poor wolf, something so bad that the wolf is whimpering even in its sleep. She looks carefully through the cave, hoping to find a clue or if someone could came back any moment for this wolf. And while her search she finds it, the Silver Key, displayed on a stone not to far from the wold but still just out of reach. That is when she realizes who this wolf is, this is Lupus.

Realizing this she can't stop the tears that are now freely flowing down her cheeks, quickly she grabs the Key and then slowly approaches the sleeping wolf, not wanting to scare him or her.

During all this Cer is just standing at the side, waiting for any indication that this wolf means any harm to Lucy but seeing how she reacts he too slowly comes closer, but not after chaining in his puppy form. He too didn't want to scare the poor creature.

The still sleeping wolf wakes up at Lucy speaks up softly and reaches out with her hands. Seeing the open eyes directed at her, with so much pain and caution in them, she smiles reassuringly and stops.

"Hey my name is Lucy Heartfilia and that is Cerberus. You must be Lupus the Wolf or am I wrong?", a nod is the only answer she gets. "Could you tell me what happened to you? The village nearby send someone to investigate the howling at Night they could hear since a while now. And if it is alright with you I would love to free you of these chains, but I believe therefore you need to let me come closer to you. Would that be alright? I promise I won't hurt you! I love all Celestial Spirits, I myself am a Celestial Mage and my Spirits are my family. If it would make you feel better I can call one of them out?"

While speaking she looks the wolf directly in the eyes, hoping that he or she can see her honesty in them. "You don't need to call one of your Spirits, I have heard of your kindness in the Spirit World before I ended up here, so it is okay for me if you come closer to me. But I am not so sure if you can make something against these chains..."

So Lucy crouches down next to the wolf and crouches down next to the chains to find out way to remove them. "Lupus could you please tell me what happened and how it comes that you are not back in the Spirit World?"

"Please call me Luna, that is my real name. It was my former Master... He was once a villager in the town nearby and at first he was a very kind Master. But over time he grew somewhat crazy, he became a Dark Mage. And when the villagers found out they banned him from town after he threatened some of the children. So he came to this cave and started to make a plan to take revenge against them. He wanted me to attack the village at Night and kill some of the kids. But back in his good times he often called me out so I could play with these kids, so I refused to kill any of them. I don't like to kill someone, especially when I was friends with them, they were all always so kind to me... But this made him so angry and he sent me back and didn't call me for a long time. I thought maybe he had giving up his plan but he searched for a way to punish me. And he found these chains, chains that would hinder me from going back to the Spirit World on my own. So that I would slowly perish. To make it even more horrible he layed a curse on my Key. Every full moon would give me little of my strength back so it would make me suffer a longer time, but at the same time this also leads to me having immense pain. He chained me as soon as I stepped out of my Gate and then beat me up, after he was finished with the beating he left and came never back. I tried so many times to go back but to no avail. And I have no idea if there is a way for you to break these chains.", during her explanation tears started to stream from her eyes and Cer came closer to nuzzle, offering some comfort along with Lucy who grew angrier and sadder the more she heard.

She won't let something like this happen! No she will break these chains and then help Luna to be happy again!

In her anger she grabs the chains and pushes her magic in them. More and more magic is pushed into these chains and slowly they began to glow golden. And with one last push of her magic and thought about her love for all Spirits the chains break and Luna immediately goes back to the Spirit World, not having enough magic left to stay any longer.

Lucy falls back, breathless and exhausted. She didn't realize how much magic she just used until now.

Cer comes up to her and nuzzles her, feeling that Lucy herself needs some comfort after seeing and hearing this story. She rolls over on her side and curls into a balls with Cer pulled to her chest and then she breaks down. Crying for the way Luna was treated, such a nice and gentle Spirit.

They lay there a little while longer until there are no more tears to cry.

Lucy stands up with Cer in her arms and makes her way back to the town. On her way she contemplates about her next actions regarding Luna, she knows that she can't call her too soon, she needs to heal and regain her strength first.

Arriving back in the village, Lucy goes straight to her room and falls into her bed, even though it's still afternoon and she should eat something.

After a short nap Lucy calls Loke to asks him for advice regarding Luna.

And as soon as Loke appears he brings Lucy in for a big hug and thanks her for saving the wolf. She hugs him back just as strongly and mumbles something of her own, during this she realizes that Loke has shed some tears of his own. After several attempts of calming down they finally are able to speak normally again and Lucy asks him what she should do now.

Loke tells her that Luna was welcome back with open arms and that Phoenix is now taking care of her to speed her healing up. He furthermore told her that Luna would like Lucy to call her tomorrow to make a contract and to speak with the villagers. Lucy agrees and sends Loke back, still not very recovered from the chain breaking earlier.

* * *

Having eaten something Lucy calls Master to tell him about her missions. During their talk they both shed a few tears because of the things Luna had to endure.

"Master!", there talk was interrupted as someone bursts in his office. Lucy couldn't see who it was but it sounded like a girl.

"Mira? Did something happen?!", Lucy can clearly see the worry in his eyes, she herself thinks the about the possibilities there are for someone to just burst into Masters office screaming for him. The only conclusion she came to was that something happened to Laxus and his Team and it seems that Master came to the same conclusion as he let the Lacrima fall on this desk and stands up, ready to run down.

"Evergreen has woken up!", at this Master sighs in relieve and slumps back down in his chair. A smile slowly forming on his face, he quickly says goodbye to Lucy and ends the connection before following Mira down to the infirmary. There he is greeted with he sobbing Elfman beside Evergreen who smiles softly at the man beside her.

Evergreen's waking up brings back hope to all of them that the rest will soon wake up as well.

This Night Lucy sleeps just the tiniest bit lighter, happy that at least one of her Guild Mates is awake again.


	10. Chapter 10

Do you know this feeling? It's summer and you just sit outside with a good book and read.. and read... and read... and you really can't stop to read, forgetting everything else because this book is just this good.

And every day I wanted to write but these books just wouldn't let me. And now I have to wait till the next comes out, oh how I hate to wait for the next book!

So I am really sorry that you had to wait this long. Especially since I always told myself that in summer I will have all the time to write...

Well have fun and tell me what you think!

* * *

Waking up the next morning Lucy smiled, remembering that she saved a Celestial Spirit the day before and that she has now a new family member.

"Hey Cer, wake up! We need to tell the Mayor about our finished mission and eat, we need to eat. I'm starving!"

Not waiting for him to stand up, Lucy goes in the bathroom and gets ready for the day. Knowing that she will meditate soon and then run, she just wears comfortable clothes.

While Cer gets ready himself she calls the room service for breakfast.

After their quick breakfast Lucy and Cer make more room, to have enough space inside to call Luna to make the contract. Cer changes into his human form and steps to the side, giving them a little privacy, because he doesn't know how Luna will react to him.

"I am linked to the path to the World of Celestial Spirits, now! O Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate. Open Gate of the Wolf, Lupus!"

Out of the Gate steps a beautiful wolf. Now with her fur free of any blood or filth Lucy is able to see that she was wrong about her fur. Yes it's still gold but just in some places. It seems that the gold she saw the day before were just the golden patterns on her dark blue, almost black, fur that glowed through the filth and blood. Seeing this makes her happy and sad at the same time. This means that poor Luna was so filthy and bloody that you weren't even able to tell that her normal fur was this dark.

Looking in Luna's eyes, Lucy is happy to see that they are no longer dull from all the pain and instead glowing in happiness and hope. The former dull grey is now a radiant violet with golden specks.

If she didn't know better she would have thought that this isn't the same wolf.

"Hello, Princess. I would like to thank you for my saving and ask of you to be my new Key Holder.", Luna bows to Lucy.

"Oh Luna, there really is no need to bow before me! And I would love to make a contract with you.", Lucy beams at the wolf, seeing the quick glance she makes to Cer she adds, "This is Cerberus or for short Cer. I assume that my other Spirits told you about him?" "Yes they did. And I hope that we will be great friends too.", she answers somewhat shyly.

"You have a human form too, don't you? If it's okay with you I would love to see it! I heard that you are able to use Moon Magic when you are in your human form?"

Instead of answering Luna changes her form.

Before them stood a beautiful girl around Lucy's age. She wears a long dress in the same color as her fur, with a broad golden belt. The dress has a long slit in the front, so that it won't hinder her running. Around her neck is something that looks like a massive golden necklace connected to the dress to hold it in place.

Around her wrists and ankles are the same golden patterns her fur had. Her eyes are the same radiant violet with golden specks. And her hair which, too, has the same color as her fur with some golden wisps is long, almost all the way to the ground in two loose piggy-tails and two shorter bangs. Between these bangs and piggy-tails are wolf ears.

Lucy and especially Cer can only stare in awe at her beauty, she looks just so exotic. Even though the gold makes her appearance warmer, she radiates a cool power. But this is very suitable for her Moon Magic.

Luna snaps with her right hand and a long light blue, almost silver, staff appears. The only decoration this staff has is the crescent moon on top of it.

"Yes Princess, with this staff I can use my Moon Magic. I must say it has been a long time since I was able to call my staff, all my previous Masters hadn't had enough magic to do so. It feels really good to hold him again. You should know that I only can use my Moon Magic when the sun has set and the fuller the moon is the stronger is my magic. I still can call my staff when the sun is out but then I can only use him as a weapon. So I would like to ask you to only call me to fight when the sun has set, but otherwise you can call me every time you want to. I would love to spent more time with the both of you to get to know you better! Oh and in my wolf form I am really good at hunting or scouting for any dangers since my senses are all heightened and I am very fast.", she explains.

"First of all, wow, you look so beautiful Luna! Of course in both of you forms. And I am very happy that I am strong enough so that you can call your staff again. Maybe sometime soon I can call you at Night so you can show me your Moon Magic?", Luna nods and Lucy continues, "Loke told me that you wanted to speak with the villagers? How about I send you back and call you again after I was able to speak with the Mayor?"

"That would be fine with me. But please tell the Mayor that I can't be out for too long since I am still recovering but I wanted to say goodbye to my friends if they want to speak with me." "Alright, then I will call you later and warn him, should I tell him what happened or do you want to do it yourself?" "I would like to do it myself if he agrees to speak with me." "Then I will do just that." Lucy smiles and she and Cer, who had finally stopped staring, says goodbye to Luna.

After that Lucy quickly packs her bag and summons Virgo to take it with her.

Before leaving the room, they put everything back into place.

* * *

An hour later they leave the village.

Luckily the Mayor agreed to speak with Luna as he remembers her. He even had asked his wife to call for the kids Luna always played with so that they could say goodbye as well.

Seeing the interaction between them all makes Lucy so happy. This shows her that there are people, mage or not, who aren't treating Celestial Spirits like tools or servants. No, here you can clearly see the bond they build up, a bond which makes Lucy think about what could have happen to the the Mage who turned dark. Well maybe she will find out someday. And if she finds him, she will make sure that he pays for what he did.

Since it's still rather early Lucy decides to meditate before jogging.

This time she calls out Crux to spend some time with Cer, she wants all of her Spirits to spend time with him. But at the moment she isn't able to call out another Gold Key during meditation so she will first start with all her Silver Keys.

Again like the other times, Capricorn notices that there is a slight improvement detectable and smiles proudly. Roughly half an hour later Lucy falls back, exhausted from her meditation and simultaneously having open two Gates.

"Lucy-sama, I have thought about a possibility to further help you expand your magic containers. I would advise to try and hold open a Silver Key for as long as possible but not so long as you would empty your second origin too. After some time you can start this with Gold Keys. Normally I wouldn't suggest this when you are outside but I believe with Cerberus at your side you have enough protection in case something happens, furthermore some of us are still able to force our own Gates open should we need to. And in the worst case you still have your second origin. This constant use of magic will force your container to replenish your magic faster and expand you containers in the process, of course this too is a slow process.", Capricorn explains.

Before Lucy can reply something he seems to remember something and speaks up again, "Oh and don't forget that I told you to try and meditate in the morning and at Night before sleeping. Not only in the morning like you did these last days. If you want to only meditate once a day I would suggest to do it as Night since you will be able to do better under the stars. Something the Spirit King told me about to help you is to completely empty both of your containers around an hour before going to sleep. This too will force your containers to replenish your magic faster and it will help you to learn how to cope with magic exhaustion. As you know, mages get very sleepy, almost motionless, when they have no magic left but this way your body will get used to the feeling and after some time you will be able to stay awake longer and longer until you even can fight a little without magic."

"Alright, thanks Capricorn, if you think that this is a good idea I will do just that. And now I have to get up and start my daily jog. Do you think I can call out Vulpecula to jog with us to start and see how long I can keep her Gate open?", Lucy asks, memorizing all advices for later.

"I believe Vulpecula would love to jog with you, Lucy-sama. If that was all I will take my leave and wait for your calling this Night.", Capricorn bows.

"Thanks Capricorn and Grandpa Crux! Open Gate of the Fox, Vulpecula!"

"Lucy-nee!", Vul as a little girl happily jumps into Lucy's arms and hugs her. "Hey Vul! Cer and I will start my daily jog and since Capricorn told me so call out a Silver Key and see how long I am able to hold open the Gate, I thought that maybe you want to jog with us?", she beams at the little girl in her arms.

"Yes I would love to!", she immediately jumps out of her arms and changes into a fox.

Cer comes over and changes too and then they start jogging.

At first Lucy doesn't really feel a pull at all on her magic. But with Vul being a Silver Key and not using any magic that is normal. This still surprises her though because she already had used quite a bit of her magic, with calling out Luna, but she too didn't use magic, Crux and Capricorn. Maybe Loke was right and this has something to do with the earrings she got from her Dad, she hadn't really thought about it before but it did seem a little easier to call her Spirits.

The more exhausted her body is from jogging the more strenuous it is to hold open the Gate.

A half hour later she definitely feels the pull on her magic and she knows that if she had open a Gold Key, she wouldn't be able to do this much longer.

Another half hour later, they just stopped jogging and are now taking a lunch break together, Lucy is almost ready to send Vul back. But she is determinate to test out her limits.

Fifteen minutes later she reaches her limit, knowing that if Virgo hadn't forced her own Gate open to bring them the lunch she would have to send Vul back earlier. Lucy knows that she need to send her back know or she won't be able to continue for quite some time.

They rest a little longer and then resume their walk to Hargeon, the next city with their last mission.

* * *

"Why doesn't happen anything at all?! What do I need to do? What did I different during the fight with that Dark Mage?!", Lucy growls out annoyed.

When it became dark they found a nice little clearing next to a little stream.

And after her training session with Loke, Lucy wanted to try and use, what she assumes is Aquarius Magic, the Water Magic again. But to no avail.

She doesn't even know where to start. And wishes desperately for Aquarius to be hear and help her. This thought only leads to her crying, with her tears dropping in the river.

Cer feeling her sadness comes and sits beside her, already guessing why she is crying and just wants to offer her comfort with his presence. Lucy feeling him at her side turns around and just hugs him until her tears stop and she can breath normal again.

They sit there a little longer, just gazing at the water until Virgo call them for dinner.

After her dinner she again calls out Capricorn to meditate.

To deplete her magic, Capricorn asks her to call out another Golden Key and open her second origin just before the first is empty. And if she feels up to it he asks her to call a third Spirit, a Silver Key. Normally he would ask her to cast Urano Metria but he thinks that at the moment she is too exhausted to do that without endangering herself.

Lucy calls out Loke, and suggest that they fight with their magic against each other to speed up the process and so she can see how long she can hold open two Golden Gates while they fight and use magic. With her almost constant use of magic this day, she knows that it probably won't take long before her first origin is empty.

And she was right, not even ten minutes later she feels that the Gate would close any moment because there is not enough magic left, "Second Origin: Release! Open Gate of the Fire Bird, Phoenix! Hey Nix, we are currently emptying both of my magic containers and I want to ask if it would be alright with you to demonstrate some of your Fire Magic. First that would help to speed up the process but second and more important, I would love to see what you can do with fire!", she grins at him, looking closely you can detect the exhaustion in her voice aside from her eagerness to see the magic of her Spirit.

"Hello, Princess. I have nothing against your wish.", the Fire Bird answers.

Seconds later his whole body is on fire, adding even more to his beauty.

From her place just a few feet away from him she can feel the heat radiating off of him. Nix steps back from her and increases the fire around him, making is hotter and hotter. Then he turns around and opens his mouth, out comes a current of fire. The fire heads across the stream and the clearing on the other side before disappearing, luckily not destroying anything in its path.

Again ten minutes she can feels her magic reaching a point where she won't be able to continue this for much longer.

"Hey Nix, I need to send you back. I have reached my limit with three Spirits for the Night. And thank you very much for your demonstration. I must say that was really impressive for just a little Fire Magic. If I am correct you can set your whole body on fire and then control the heat of it, furthermore you can do something akin to the Roar Dragon Slayers can attack with. Or am I wrong with this?"

"You are right Princess. I wish you a goodnight.", and with that the Spirit was gone, Lucy not being able to hold his Gate open any longer.

Loke and Capricorn follow soon after Nix, both with very proud smiles on their faces.

To exhausted to do much more, Lucy trots to the tent, grabs her back and washes herself in the stream rather slowly. Slowly because she isn't able to move quick at all.

After her bath Cer comes over to help her to their tent, where they lay down to sleep.

"I guess I have to wait till tomorrow for any news from...", Lucy mumbles but falls asleep before she can finish.


	11. Chapter 11

"Open Gate of the Goat and Compass, Capricorn and Pyxis." "Good morning, Miss Lucy." "Pikuu!"

"Hello again Capricorn. And you must be Pyxis? One of Lucy's Silver Keys, I am happy to get to know you, I am Cerberus or Cer in short.", Cer greets them.

"Hey, I hope it is okay for you to get to know Cer better, Pyxis?", she smiles at her Spirit. "Pikuu!"

Luckily because of his connection with Lucy Cer is able to understand all her Spirits just as much as Lucy is. So he and Pyxis go to the side to talk while Lucy starts her meditation with Capricorn. Lucy knows that she still hasn't recover all of her magic from emptying both of her containers the day before but she has replenished way more that she thought she would. This just shows her that she has really grown, something that makes her really happy.

As expected Lucy couldn't hold her meditation as long as the other days, no surprise with her not fully recovered.

After having recovered enough she sends both her Spirits back and having a sudden idea she calls out Luna for their jog, she remembers how Cer looked at her new Spirit...

"Hey Luna, want to jog with us? You know that Capricorn told me to see how long I can hold open a Silver Key or not?", Lucy asks the Spirit who appeared in her human-form "Yes Princess, Capricorn told all of your Spirits about this and I would love to jog with you.", Luna bows.

"Oh Luna, I already told you that there is no need to bow. We are friends and friends doesn't bow to one another.", Lucy grins at her, "I remember that you told us that in your wolf-form you are really fast. How about you show us this during our lunch break? You could race with Cer while I call my Guild. Of course only if you want to?"

"That is certainly alright with me, Princess. I can't wait to see who is faster", she lets out a wolfish grin.

"Then lets start!", and with that Cer startet to jog ahead of them, only slowing down to let Lucy catch up and then continues with his fast past. His goal for today, bring Lucy to her limit and see how long she is able to hold it.

With that fast pace Lucy isn't able to jog as long as the other days but she powers through.

Lunch comes and goes and you can clearly see how excited both, Cer and Luna, are. Seeing this Lucy sends them on their run but not after watching how Luna changes her form and then runs a few rounds with Cer for Lucy to see her speed.

Before Lucy has the chance to say anything to that are Luna and Cer already running away from the clearing and into the forest. She screams only a "I won't be able to hold your Gate open for much longer, so don't worry in case that Luna suddenly disappears. Have fun you two!" after their leaving forms. The only answer she gets is a howling, a howling that is full of happiness.

Hearing that Lucy smiles brightly to herself, happy that her newest Spirit is already this happy after what had happened to her.

She takes out her Lacrima to call Master, something she wanted to do yesterday but forgot to do completely. Lucy hopes for more good news about Laxus and his Team.

"Hello my child!" "Hello Master! I wanted to call yesterday already to ask about Evergreen and the others but I forgot...", Lucy looks down in shame. "Oh don't worry my child. In fact, even if you would have called I probably wouldn't have answered. Over the day, Freed and Bickslow woke up too and Evergreen is slowly recovering from her constant laying in bed. She was even able to go a few steps on her own. The only one who is still not awake is Laxus, but we are all sure that this will happen soon, he was after all the one who took the most damage.", he reassures her with his good new.

"Oh wow, that great news! Very great news! Hopefully they will recover fast and Laxus wake up soon too. I just want to say, if he doesn't, my offer to let Phoenix look at him still stands. So just tell me before I reach Tenrou if you want me to do that.", she smiles and slumps in pure relief. "Yeah very great news, especially for Mira and Elfman!", Master grins somewhat perverted and then adds, "And thanks for your offer but I don't think that there is a need for that. You just continue with your missions and journey. I know that this is something you need to do at the moment and will only call if it's very important. So my chi..."

Master is interrupted by a crash, "I guess I should look..." "Yeah, you probably should Master. I call you again before starting with my last mission.", Lucy giggle and ends the call as she hears another crash.

With the call ending she suddenly feels the huge drain on her magic and almost falls over, chest heaving in magic exhaustion. "Sorry Luna, Cer... I wish I could have given you more time...", with that whisper she sends her Spirit back and lays down on the ground, waiting for Cer to return.

She didn't have to wait long until Cer arrived back at the clearing where he just lays down beside her. He himself is slightly exhausted from his match with Luna, she really is fast. Thinking about that Wolf Spirit and the fun their had in this short amount of time brings a little blush to his face, or it would have if he wasn't still in his normal dog-form. It's been such a long time since he had feelings like that. With Lucy it is something different entirely, yes he loves to tease her but that is all this is. Just some teasing between friends, very good friends. With the bond between them it probably couldn't ever be something more.  
And down in the underworld where he protects the Gates of Hell normally, is something like this forbidden or more like not seen. Feelings in generell are nothing that is seen in a good way down there...

* * *

 _Sooo... yesterday I tried the Water Magic and that didn't work at all. Maybe today I should try the first of my spells, if Capricorn says that I am ready._

She quickly takes out her new book and flicks trough the book until she finds the spells again.

Star-Beam, that is the first spell she will try hopefully today.

"Open Gate of the Goat, Capricorn!" "Good evening Miss Lucy, is it already time meditation?", Capricorn bows. "No, that I will do later when the stars are out. You know I've got this book from my Father and I wanted to try out the first spell when you say that it's okay?", Lucy gives him the book.

"Alright Miss Lucy, I think we can try this. Like the book advises I too advise you to start with directing you magic to different part of your body. Now sit down comfortably and close your eyes, just as you would do when we meditate. Continue just as during meditation but instead of sending your magic out of you concentrate on your magic and direct it to a certain part in your body. Maybe start with your hands since this is your normal way when calling us Spirits. Your magic probably wants to go further, searching for a Key where your magic normally is needed. When you feel that this happens, stop and start again. Feel how your magic moves through your body, seeking for a destination and place where is can be used and has still it's own will. You really need to force your magic to this new movement, switching from Holder-Type to Caster-Type is really hard. Not many are able to do that but in Celestial Magic it's just the next step. And with you already being able to cast Urano Metria we know that you can do it."

During his explanation, he observes as the air around Lucy's right hand starts to glow several times. A sign that the magic got further than wanted at the moment, the glow only means that the magic gets ready to summon a Spirit but finds no item or Key to channel trough.

Time continues and it starts to take longer until her hands start to glow, meaning that she is able to hold her magic in her hand, without pushing it out, longer and longer.

"Don't try to perfect it in your right hand, start with other party of your body. But please don't direct your magic to your head, there is a danger when doing that before you have enough control.", he warns her and then continues to walk up and down in front of her while observing her. He sees that she tries next with her left hand and is able to tell that is a little easier for her to do this. Next her right foot glows and as last she directs the magic to the other foot.

"I believe we can at least try the spell now. Imagine, like the book said, what you want to happen. You need to have a clear image of it inside of your head. When you have this image sends you magic to your right hand with the order to stay in your hand. When you can hold the magic there in your hand and have still the image before your eyes you push your magic outside and wills your magic to take the form of the image. At first your magic will try again to find a Key or item where you will channel it through, because that is what your magic is used to. But you need to hold your magic firm on the place outside of your body, forming it there to your will without the help of a Key."

He can see as she concentrates even more, scrunching up her eyebrows while she tries to hold the image and push her magic to the wanted place. This is similar to calling a Spirit, there she imagines the door she wants to open and then pushes her magic outside of her, but the missing Key, which helps the magic to channel, is a hindrance. She know needs to learn to control her magic without the help of an item.

He is still trying to figure out how she is able to perform Urano Metria without doing this training first. But maybe it has something to do with Hibiki transmitting this spell directly to her.

The glow you can see by her hand now is different from before. It's more concentrated on one spot, directly in her hand. And looking closely you can see that the glow has the form of a star. Even though she isn't able to hold that for very long at the moment, it's still something great and impressing.

She holds this longer and longer until Capricorn is able to see that she is now stopping and starting again on purpose to repeat the process and not because her magic still searches for a place to go.

"Very good, Miss Lucy, next and last step for today is the Beam. Do just as before, direct you magic to your hand and will it to change form. Remember that you need to change the image inside of your head. Your magic should follow this image and after changing form just more from your hand, like the image. I know it sounds easier than it really is. Just focus on the image and the flow of your magic, then changing the form.", and slowly Capricorn is able to see that a Beam starts to form. The Beam isn't long at the moment before her magic starts to search for a Key again. But this is normal. It takes time to be able to change your magic outside of your body without any help.

When she reaches roughly six feet with her Beam, Capricorn decides that this is enough for today, "We should stop at this point otherwise you will be to exhausted to meditate, Miss Lucy. A last thing you can try out is to do this one time with open eyes. But remember even with open eyes you need to be able to the the wanted image directly in front of your eyes."

Lucy slowly opens her eyes before trying the start of this spell for a last time. Her concentration wavers as soon as she realizes how dark it suddenly is, but she wants to see her progress with her own eyes and focuses again. And for the first time she able to see as on her right hand a glowing star appears and then a Beam starts to form. In her happiness at seeing this her concentration breaks and the Beam disappears along with the star on her hand.

She is eager to try again but then remembers what Capricorn told her and so she just falls back in exhaustion, looking up at her loves stars.

* * *

The next day is pretty much the same.

Meditating in the morning and then jogging with Cer and Luna, it seems that they really like each other. Lucy can clearly see this, even though they have known each other just for a short period of time.

Knowing that she wants to train more before arriving in Hargeon they stop earlier for camp, otherwise they would have made it into town this day.

This evening she tries again with the Water Magic, but doesn't succeed. After an hour of trying without seeing anything happen at all she decides to practice her new spell more.

Knowing the first steps, she doesn't calls Capricorn to help her and starts to do like the day before but with her left hand.

Quickly she realizes that even though she can feel her magic, she doesn't know how far her Beam reaches. So she decides to try with open eyes again, switching between both arms.

The first other change she makes is to change the position of her hands, sending the small Beam in different directions. Next she decides to try this while standing. It's harder but she can do it. She knows that it will take some time for her to shoot a longer Beam and maybe even before she is able to add heat but this is a start.

The last thing she wants to try is to do all this while slowly moving, wanting to be able to sends her magic to different parts of her body while still concentrate on her body to move. It's hard, it's really hard. But that was expected. Slowly she again is able to hold a star in her hands, but the Beam doesn't works while moving at the moment.

Like the day before she was to engrossed in her training that she didn't realize how late it is. So she quickly eats with Cer, he was hunting while she trained and found them something to eat, and speaks a bit with him before meditating.

After the meditation her emptying of both of her magic containers, makes her almost fall asleep instantly again. In these moments she wishes that she would do this, she is just so exhausted from emptying both of her containers.

So Lucy and Cer lay in there tent and just cuddle while talking a little, more like Cer talking and Lucy trying to listen without falling asleep from exhaustion.

* * *

The mission in Hargeon was rather easy.

The librarian showed her the place and all she had to do was call out Pyxis to show her away to the book without walking in the traps. Just perfect that Pyxis told her the other day that he is now able to show her a more precise way and the safest way. If the traps would have been from someone who is much stronger than she herself, Pyxis wouldn't have been able to detect all. But apparently she had luck.

So much luck that she was already done with the mission around lunch.

She called Master and wanted to give him the news and tell him that she is leaving for Tenrou now. Master answered his call with a happy and wide grin and shining eyes, it seems as if all his worries went away.

"He is awake! Laxus is finally awake! He had woken up shortly after we spoke earlier. Lucy! My grandson is finally awake!" "Ohhhh! If that aren't good news, than I don't now! I would love to say hello to all of them and say them how happy I am that they are all awake again, could you please tell them that from me Master? And I don't want to separate from him any longer so I so will make this quick. I finished my mission already and will then leave for Tenrou. I will call you once I reached Tenrou and then when I leave again.", Lucy has now her own happy grin, good news are always helping her to feel better.

"Of course I will tell them that! Have a good journey my child, I will await your call this evening!"

They both smile and then end the call.

Lucy goes to search for a boat that will bring her as near as possible to Tenrou, since she will be the only one able to see it.

Master goes back down to his grandson to cry some more tears of happiness and relief, while said grandson is trying to stop his Gramps from doing so. But secretly he is very happy about this reaction and the love his Gramps shows to him, after all at one time in life he thought that he would never get the chance to have such a good relationship with his Gramps again.

When Master delivers the message from Lucy all of them are happy about it, some of them having a fleeting memory of her sitting by them and telling them something. But all believe that it was just a weird dream they had, after all they couldn't understand what she told them and why would Lucy sit with them. They have after all not a great friendship or anything like that. So none of them says anything about it and for the moment nobody wonders why Master told them this message from Lucy and why she didn't was there herself.


	12. Chapter 12

Finally Lucy spots Tenrou, they searched so long. The Captain told her not to long ago that they would need to go back when she doesn't spot the island soon. And there, a few hundred yards in front of them she can see the big tree.

She gives the Captain the promised money for bringing her this far and giving her the little lifeboat so she can paddle with Cer to the island. Luckily there is no storm and they have no problem reaching the beach.

Their they sat up camp on the edge to the forest bordering the beach under one of the bigger trees.

"Hello my lovely Princess!" "Loke? What are you doing here?", Lucy looks curious up from where she was about to call Master. "You remember that our King wanted to speak with you? He send me to tell you that he would like it when we are going tomorrow. He advises you to sleep long and then we will leave as soon as you are awake. Cer can of course come with us.", he answers her.

"I get to see the Spirit World? Awesome! Lucy told me a little about it and it sounds so beautiful and wonderful, the complete opposite to the underworld.", Cer grins in joy. "Oh yes, do you know how long we will be gone? Do you think we can let our camp here? And can I tell Master about this meeting or is this some kind of secret meeting?", Lucy asks.

"No, I don't know how long we will be gone. As you should remember, one day there equals three month here and I don't know how long this meeting will take. He still wouldn't tell me why he wants to meet you. I believe you can let your camp the way it is at the moment. And I don't know about Master, I think it's okay to tell him but you should tell him that only he is allowed to know for now, then you can ask yourself if you are allowed to tell other people too.", Loke suggests. "Alright then I will tell Master this and tomorrow we leave." "Do this Princess, maybe you should just relax today so that you have all your strength for tomorrow. Who knows what our King might want... Maybe you and I should take a relaxing bath in the ocean.", he winks at her. Lucy throws the first thing in reach at him, hitting him with a small twig before he goes back to the Spirit World with a, "Oh Princess, you have wounded me!", and dramatically raises his hands to his chest.

"This Lion of yours is pretty weird... I like him!", Cer grins at her. "I like him too! Even though his antics are sometimes pretty weird as you said. But that's what makes him who he is", Lucy laughs. "Well I go take a swim in the ocean, you call your Master. And join me after, we can have some fun in there.", he winks and then sprints off before he gets something thrown at him like the Lion.

Lucy sits down comfortable and takes out her Com to call Master. "Hello Master, how are you? How are Laxus and his Team? Do they feel better? How is their recovering?", Lucy fires question after question at him. "Hello, Lucy, my Dear. I assume that you have arrived at Tenrou?", Lucy nods, "That's good to hear my child! I am well, no, better then well in fact! Porlyusica has them all on bed rest for at least another week. She wants them to get back on their feet slowly. Evergreen was able to walk her first steps without any help, of course only to the bathroom otherwise Porlyusica would have probably thrown a fit. Bickslow and Freed can sit and talk without problems, they too will probably be able to walk soon. And then there is my grandson... he is already pretty annoyed that Porlyusica has him practically tied to his bed. She demands that he rests in bed for a few more days before he is allowed to do more. You know this brat, he won't listen and then I am the one who gets scolded by her. This ruthless brat! He will be the end of me!", Masters happy voices dims until he wails to her with tears streaming down his face.

Lucy can't stop her cheerful giggle at hearing these news. "Good to hear that they are doing great and are recovering. And yeah, even though I didn't have much to do with him I can imagine how Laxus would react to something like that. It's not like he would listen to me but tell him that he should really listen to her when he wants to get up fast, Porlyusica has her reasons after all. And if that doesn't help, you can threat him with Virgo chaining him up. Maybe he has heard of how much pleasure she takes in chaining people, no matter who, and if he didn't hear of it he can ask most of the Guild about stories from my old Team...", Lucy grins back.

"Hmm... Yeah, that might help... This reckless brat really hates it to be tied to something... And I am sure that he heard about Virgo and her chains, everyone in this Guild knows of it thanks to Natsu's stories. Oh, I almost forgot, they very happy to hear from you, all of the Guild. But don't worry, they all still think that you are with the Dragon Slayers. What will you do know? How long will you stay on Tenrou?", he asks her.

"Oh, I almost forgot with hearing these great news. Master, are you alone at the moment so that nobody can hear us?", he nods at her, "Then I can tell what I plan next. The Celestial Spirit King wants to talk with me about something and because of that I will go to the Spirit World tomorrow. You should know that one day there equals three month here and I don't know how long this will take. Another thing you should know is that for the moment nobody else is allowed to know about this. Loke wasn't sure who I am allowed to tell this but he assumed that it would be okay to tell you, so I ask you to not tell anyone about me being in the Spirit World. I will leave tomorrow morning right after I wake up and then call you when I am back or maybe Loke will visit. If you really want for me to ask Virgo to chain Laxus up you should decide until tomorrow morning, otherwise it will be to late.", Lucy grins, hoping that her last statement will make Master grin again after his shocked face.

"Uh.. Uhm... Yeah... I will do that, hopefully there will be no need to do so. Be assured that I won't tell anyone about this. But Lucy, my Dear, how will Laxus be released from these chains in case, he won't listen? You know, the more I think about it, the more I come to like this idea of chaining up this brat. It will teach him a lesson to listen to me and Porlyusica. And even better, he will recover much faster when he can't overexert himself.", Master grins back, already imagine his grandson tied to the bed.

"Oh that's simple! Now that I am stronger Virgo can to some agree control her own chains even when she is in the Spirit World. She can command them when to disappear and even give them more length. So he could still go to the bathroom or something like that. It's something like she can feel through her chains when he really needs to move and then she can control them even though she is in the Spirit World.", Lucy explains the news she got from her Spirit not to long ago.

"It always amazes me how far you have come my dear child! I am so proud of you!", Master practically shouts out in this moment as his feelings somewhat overflow, "And thanks for your offer, I think I will go down right away after we end our call and threaten this brat, maybe then he will be quiet for at least a moment. I already can hear him again... This annoying reckless brat!", he groans.

"Do this Master, I am always happy to help! And now I won't hinder you any longer from threatening him and fussing over him, there's no need to deny, I know you will.", Lucy smirks at him.

For a moment Master can't stop his mouth from gaping open. _Since when is she this cheeky? No, she was always like that but before she didn't let it out like this..._ "Alright, Lucy, enjoy your day and maybe we will speak tomorrow, if this brat won't listen to me!" "Bye, Master, and greet them from me!"

And with that they end the call.

Looking to the ocean she sees Cer still in there and decides to join him for a while, to do what Master told her; enjoy her day.

"You know I like how our bond influences us both!", Cer grins at her as she reaches the water, just about to splash him. Lucy pouts shortly when she realizes that he noticed her before she was able to do so but then his words register in her mind, "Influence?"

"Yeah, come to think of it... We never really spoke about it before. I know that from the beginning you felt the connection between us like I do too. And you know that you called me to be your friend, something I love being. But there is this other part that we didn't really speak about before; to help you in your time of need." "I thought that this part has something to to with being my friend and all.", Lucy interrupts him.

"That is true but there is still something else to it. To help you in your time of need, I need to help you to give you strength so that you are able to depend on yourself. Through our bond I kind of give you inner strength, so that you are able to be yourself. And you give me your kindness, something that I have but with coming from the underworld sometimes forget how to be. That means we help each other. That is all I mean with influence, I believe you would have never spoken with your Master like this before because of something holding you back. Me being here with you makes you somewhat more cheeky, but I will never influence in a bad kind of way.", he explains to her, thinking about how it comes that they never spoke about it before, coming to the conclusion that it has something to do with the deep connection they had from the beginning and never questioning anything between them.

Lucy ponders a little about what she has just learned and comes to the conclusion that this is really nothing bad, instead a wicked smirk slowly appears along with a playful gleam in her eyes.

Seeing Lucy's face Cer stops in his attempt to take her and then trough her in the water like he planned, backing away a little he hopes that this isn't directed at him. It seems this little influence he has created a monster. Sadly he didn't know how right he was with this and how scary she was even before this one little change.

"You know Cer, I just got a wonderful idea. I assume you heard my talk with Master?", a slow nod from him, "Well, how about I send Virgo there now to make clear that this is a true threat. In someway it maybe would scare Laxus to do what is told, what alone is a reason to do it. But it would help Master, and I believe he really needs all the help he gets with watching over his own grandson. And in the end, Laxus really should stay in bed when this is what Porlyusica says is best. I would hate to her from Master that his condition gets worse because he didn't listen. After what happened Master possible can't endure much more happening to us...", by now the smirk turned to a sad and still somewhat happy smile along with the playfulness in her eyes changing to affection as she thinks about her Guild and family.

"Maybe you should do this. It probably will scare this Laxus guy you are talking about, something I would love to see. And I think you should help this Master of yours, the way he speaks shows how stresses he is and everything that helps is good.", he encourages her.

And with that Lucy takes Virgo's Key, yes even here she didn't just let her Keys at their camp and has them on her belt around her hip. Safe is safe after all, who knows what could happen.

"Open Gate of the Maiden, Virgo!" "Hello Princess, with what can I help you? Is is punishing time?", Virgos bows like always.

"Well you could somewhat say that it is indeed punishing time.", Virgo's eyes lit up with joy, "But not for you!", her eyes dim again but there is still a little sparkle visible, "Could you please appear in the infirmary at Fairy Tail to scare Laxus? I offered Master that in case Laxus won't listen and stay in bed to rest further you could chain him up. He wanted to call me until tomorrow morning if he needs this or if the threat is enough. And I just thought that the threat would be so much better with you popping out suddenly and chains ready to do just that. Please give him your super stoic but because of that threatening face and declare how much you would love to chain him up and maybe even punish him. Maybe speak about some new methods to tie people up and then leave again when it seems that he understands what would happen when he doesn't listen to Master and Porlyusica. Of course you don't have to do it, but I thought you would like it. I know how much you love to tie people and so.", Lucy grins at her Spirit who has now the gleam back in her eyes.

"I will certainly do so with the most pleasure, Princess!"

* * *

"Laxus! Porlyusica said that you attempted to leave your bed again, don't you remember what I told you not so long ago about Virgo chaining you up? You should know that I will ask Lucy to do so if you don't listen!", Masters shout is heard throughout the whole Guild. And that only around an hour later after he left to do some paperwork.

"Oh come on Gramps, Blondie isn't even here. How will she or her Spirit be able to do something like that? Just let me stand up already!", almost shouts back in his annoyance that they have him on bed rest.

"Come on boss man, just listen to them. We all are on bed rest.", Bickslow tries to stop this before it leads to another shouting match, something that is certainly not good for Laxus recovering or Masters heart.

Laxus only glares at him before saying, "But you are at least allowed to walk a little! I have to stay in bed all the time!" "Laxus-sama, as much as it pains me to speak against you, you should listen, this is after all just for your best.", Freed is the next to speak up.

Again Laxus glares added with a growl and just as he was about to say something he stops as he hears something at an alarming speed approaching.

"Punishment time, Master Makarov?"

For a moment everything is silent in in the infirmary. Everyone is gaping at the Spirit that just popped out with her always present stoic facial expression and a little glint barely detectable in her eyes as she glances at Laxus half standing form.

In his shock Laxus plumps back down on his back, still staring at the Spirit from the blonde Mage, the blonde Mage he can sense nowhere near them.

After Master Makarov came over his first shock he starts to cackle evilly, coming to the conclusion that Luca send her Spirit to help him make the threat more believable.

"I don't know Virgo. Is it punishing time, Laxus? Maybe now you will believe that we really will chain you to the bed when you won't stop going against your bed rest."

"If I am allowed to say this, please let me chain you up. It has been a long time since I was able to really chain someone up.", Virgos says, the glint in her eyes now more prominent and her chains dancing in the air. She does just as her Princess asked of her, and she is again so happy that her Princess knows how much fun she has with something like that and gives her the opportunity to do so.

At this Laxus actually gulps a little, casting a glance from the Spirit to his Gramps. He never thought that he would really mean this threat.

"So now that you know how serious I am, you have till tomorrow morning to decide what you will do. Either you decide to listen and take this bed rest honestly or I will call Lucy and let her send Virgo here again. What should it be...", Master threatens his grandson ones again.

Laxus only answer is to lay back in bed with his arms crossed over his chest and a very annoyed facial expression.

"I think you can go for now Virgo. And please tell Lucy I am very grateful for helping me with this!", Master grins at the Spirit.

"I will do as you asked and tell my Princess. Goodbye Master Makarov, hopefully I can come tomorrow and chain someone up!", and with one last glance in Laxus direction and a little dance of her chains Virgo disappears again.

* * *

 **I'm so sorry that this took me so long. And this is more of a filler than a real Chapter. The next Chapter will be full of emotions and I have a hard time to write them nicely, s** **o instead you get this Chapter first.**

 **And tell me, who doesn't from time to time love the thought of a to the bed tied Laxus? ;)**

 **Tell me should he really end up tied to his bed or listen to his Gramps? What do you think is better? Anyways, that probably would only be a small side part of the next Chapter.**

 **Hopefully from now on I will be able to update more often again.**


	13. Chapter 13

As always Porlyusica was the first to enter the infirmary in the morning. And as the previous days taught her she was prepared to scream at Laxus , for he always tried to stand up when he thought that nobody was coming in and seemingly one of these times was in the morning. She already had her mouth open to begin her rant but then stops dead in her tracks as she sees Laxus.

Laxus is tied to his bed with chains around his wrists and ankles.

At first she is completely staggered and for a moment concerned, especially as she notes that he looks more like someone has knocked him out and not just sleeping, but then she remembers what Makarov told her and she spots a piece of paper pinned to his forehead.

 _Dear Master Makarov and Healer Porlyusica,_

 _my Princess asked me to come by a few times to watch over Laxus since she had a feeling that the warning wouldn't be enough to stop him from standing up. As you know Master Makarov she won't be reachable from some time this morning on, so she asked me to chain Laxus up in case I catch him while standing up because she wasn't so sure from what time on you can't reach her anymore._

 _When I came by around five in the morning he was standing and about to move to the door, not the door to the bathroom. I asked him to lay back down and reminded him about our talk earlier and the promise my Princess made to you Master Makarov. He, luckily, refused and I proceeded to knock him out before chaining him to his bed._

 _Be assured that I will know through my chains when he is allowed to move and when not. I am sure that my princess explained most of it already. I will lengthen my chains or release them when I hear you, Master Makarov, or the Healer Porlyusica give the permission._

 _Furthermore these are magic cancelling chains so he won't be able to use his magic._

 _I hope you are alright with what I did and that it will help you._

 _If not, please tell my Princess about it so that she will punish me properly._

 _Virgo_

 _P.S.: If you are in need of my chains in the future again just ask my Princess about it. I would love to help with it._

Reading this Porlyusica, for once, really had to suppress a grin. _Serves this brat right! He should have just listened to us, to me!_

Still with this barely there grin she turns back around to inform Makarov about this.

Back, they are greeted with a trashing and growling Dragon Slayer. Seeing this they are very happy and relieved that these are magic cancelling chains, otherwise nobody would no what would happen. And even now with his magic cancelled they can see single sparks moving along his body.

Laxus, hearing them come in snaps his head in their direction and growls and glares at them, seething with anger.

"Release me! Now!", he roars at them, setting free a few more sparks while still trashing and trying to break the chains.

"Laxus-sama!", Freed along with the rest of the Team woke up from this shout. All of them sit up startled and then spot Laxus chained to the bed. Freed's first reaction is to jump up and help him to unchain him but a shout from Master and Porlyusica stops him from doing so.

"Is that Virgo's doing? When was she hear? I thought that she would only chain him when you call Lucy?", Evergreen turns to Master.

"That was the plan, but Lucy had a feeling that Laxus wouldn't listen and send Virgo a few times in the night to check on Laxus and chain him in case she catches him out of bed.", Master somewhat grins and steps closer to his grandson while shaking his head, "You really should have listened to us, you ignorant brat! It's your own fault that you're in this situation and chained to the bed!"

* * *

"Let's go, Princess! On to the Spirit World!", Loke grins at his Key Holder after she emerges back from the tent, now wearing Celestial Clothes, just like Cer who chained behind some trees.

"Yes, I can't wait to find out what Stache Face wants from me!", Lucy jumps up and down in excitement in front of the boys.

"Well then come here, both of you, and give me your hand.", Loke smiles at her pure happiness.

Only seconds later they are in the Spirit World. Lucy, who already knows how it looks like, still can only stare in amazement at her surroundings.

Cer stands next to her not moving at all with his mouth wide open and pure amazement shining in his eyes. He is completely flabbergasted, never before had he seen something this beautiful.

"Old Friend, good to see you! And good to see that you are doing better. I assume the man at your side is Cerberus? The being you called to be your friend?", the voice booms throughout the whole place.

Lucy, a little startled, flinches and then turns with a grin to the King, "Stache Face! Good to see you too, especially without a threat! Yes, I am doing better, thanks to all my Spirits and Cer. Yes you assumed right, this is Cerberus or in short Cer, thanks that you allowed him to come too."

Seeing that Cer still stands there with his mouth agape, now staring at the King, Lucy jabs him with her elbow in the side.

Startled he hastily bows and then stutters, "Yes, thank you very much for giving me the permission to enter your World, Celestial Spirit King!"

The King only looks down at him, so long that Cer begins to squirm in his place, and then grins at him, again startling the Hellhound.

"Now, my Old Friend, let us not longer wait and sit down. We have something to eat and drink for you ready. I will tell you why I wanted you come here while we eat."

Lucy and Cer follow the King to a table full with different dishes. There say sat down and begin to eat.

"You should know, Old Friend, that these dishes are especially made so that you can stay awake the whole time you are here, as long as it won't be longer then two days. More than two days won't be good for your health. You will soon see why I give this to you.", he adds the last when he sees the questioning look in her eyes.

"I have a few gifts for you, my Old Friend. And another surprise, but this I will show you as last.", the King starts to explain why he wanted Lucy to come.

"Gifts? And a surprise? There is really no need for that!", Lucy looks down a little embarrassed, not thinking that she deserves something after breaking Aquarius Key.

"Yes, these are things that a long time ago many Celestial Mages got from us when the earned my gratitude and respect. But, never before have I giving a single Mage all of these at the same time. But I believe that you deserve all of them and I see no reason to not give them to you. It's been a very long time since I believed a Spirit Mage worthy of these presents.", he looks down at her with eyes full of pride.

Lucy blushes but looks up at him nonetheless, with a happy smile spreading over her face.

"I heard that you got a dagger that you can use with your magic. And after hearing the description I can tell that it is indeed a Celestial Dagger. I will explain later how you can use this dagger in combination with you magic but first my first present. This is a holster for your thigh so you have a place where you can hold the dagger and always reach it. Furthermore is this holster magic infused and will call the dagger back to you should you lose him or when someone tries to steal him. Another thing the infused magic does is that as soon as you strap it on you won't feel it, so you can sit or even lay down without the dagger or holster being in the way. It is as if they aren't there but you can still see them and of course grab the dagger when you want to. And now come on, you should try it on immediately, my Old Friend!", and with his last words he hands over the holster.

The holster has two straps to wrap around her thigh, these two straps are connected through sheath to protect her from any possible injuries while wearing the dagger. The colors are the same as the ones from her new earrings - dark blue, almost black, with golden lacrimas, looking like tiny stars.

Lucy stands up and straps the holster around her right thigh. Before she can ask Virgo to hand her the dagger, the Maid already is at her said holding the dagger for her to take. She places the dagger in the sheath and then walks a few steps, wanting to test how this feels, and after sitting back down again she realizes that the King is right with her not feeling the holster at all. Looking down at her leg she can see both but if she didn't know that they are there she wouldn't notice them.

"Thanks, Stache Face, this is really great! Especially since I wanted to buy one myself when I get back. And I am really curious to find out how I can use this dagger in combination with my magic. You called him Celestial Dagger, does that mean that only Celestial Mages can use him and the salesman my father bought him from was right?", Lucy asks.

"Yes, Old Friend, only Celestial Mages can use the magic in this dagger, so the salesman was right. For every other person, mage or not, it would just be a normal dagger without any special abilities. I am sure you want to find out but that will come later.", he smiles.

At this Lucy pouts a little but then smiles back, eager to find out what else he want to give her and most so what this special surprise is.

"Princess? Do you wish an update on how the things are in Fairy Tail and if the Dragon Slayer is behaving better?", Virgo asks suddenly with a slight smirk detectable.

"Oh right, I almost forgot about that. With the difference in time Laxus must be chained to the bed for...", Lucy stops and calculates how long it is, "Hmm... We are here for only a little longer than half an hour... That means... Around Two days are gone by, am I right?"

"Yes, you are right with this my Old Friend."

* * *

So while Lucy and Cer happily eat and talk with the Spirit King for roughly half an hour, Laxus is already chained to his bed for two days.

Something he doesn't like at all. He only gets to stand up when Porlyusica allows him to go to the bathroom and even then there is always a time set for him.

The first day was the worst for him. He trashed in his bed, trying to break the chains until he was to exhausted to move anymore. While trashing he was shouting to be released and growling when ever someone denied him this.

When he reaches the points were he couldn't trash anymore from exhaustion he still continued to shout until even this dies down and he only growls from time to him.

This hole time the chains were so short that he even didn't have the chance to at least sit up. No, Virgo was holding him down firmly, taking great pleasure in all this.

Around noon he stopped everything, realizing that there is nothing he can do at the moment about this. But he swears to himself that the blonde will pay for this.

He gives everyone the silent treatment, ignoring everyone, still growling from time to time when someone comes to close to him or just annoys him.

After everyone has eaten lunch Porlyusica came in the infirmary again to examine everyone of them, Laxus last. Reaching him, she gives him the choice that she either examines him while he has to lay down on his bed or that he can stand up like the others when he promises to be calm and not do anything rush.

Laxus of course agrees with this. Hearing the permission through her chains, Virgo lengthens them but only seconds later pulls them back.

Yes, Laxus was not calm at all and again tried to move more than he was allowed.

Sadly for him and his decision he didn't get any lunch. Nobody, really nobody, wants to feed a raging Dragon Slayer.

The next day was better for him, especially after he realized that he really feels a little better after not moving much the prior day, apart from the time were he was trashing in his bed.

Even though he realized this he still was furious about being chained to this bed, by Blondie and her Spirit nonetheless. He promised to make her pay for this still stands, she will get it back!

* * *

"The second present I have for you is this ring. The ring is made from a special stone from on of our stars. With this ring you will always have a connection to the stars and with that to your magic. That means, nobody is able to seal your magic in anyway as long as you wear this ring. And since this ring will build a connection with you, nobody can take it from you without you giving the permission to do so."

The ring looks like white marble. But the normal dark veins are gold yet again.

Taking the ring in her hands Lucy feels how smooth the surface is and that the stone is not cold at all. She places the ring on her left middle finger, so he won't disturb her when she holds her whip or new dagger.

Once the ring is on her finger she admires the simple beauty of it and how perfect the ring fits.

"The last present is something that will help you with your Keys. This is something I will only give you when you want to, it's your own choice. There is a way for Celestial Mages to not lose their Keys or get them stolen. I can fuse your Keys with you, the Key will then appear as a tattoo on a place of your choice. That means you won't have your Keys anymore in a solid form and you would have to learn to direct your magic to the tattoo of the Spirit you want to call. This is something not all Celestial Mages are able to, but from what Capricorn told me about your training you are more than able to do this. Furthermore you would have a constant connection with all you Keys and would be able to call all of them with just a thought and can speak with through telepathy even when they are still here in the Spirit World.", the Spirit King explains before Lucy has the chance to thank him properly for her second gift.

"Nobody would be able to steal my Keys?", the King nods as answer, "What kind of tattoos would that be? And what is with the Keys I will get in the future? Would I have to come here every time so that you can fuse them with me?", she questions.

"The tattoo would be the constellation of the Spirit and have the color of the Key, meaning gold or Silver. I heard that you are in the possession of two Diamond Keys?", this time Lucy is the one to nod, "Since the Fairies have no constellation, their tattoo would be a symbol of their element. And no you won't have to come here to fuse with your new Keys. As soon as I give you permission to do this, all Keys will automatically fuse with you after you made the contract. You just have to think about the place where you want the tattoo and the Key will disappear and the tattoo appear. So my Old Friend, do you want this? Or do you want to have your Keys?"

"Well, I love to hold my Keys and to hear their jingle when I move. But I always wanted something that prevents my Keys from being stolen and that I will have a even closer connection with them, makes this even better. So yes, I would love to change my Keys to these tattoos. Will we do this now or when I get back to Earthland?", Lucy asks excited, remembering all the times someone wanted to take her Keys away from her.

"We can do this right now, it will be faster this way. You tell me where you want your tattoos and I will place them all at the same time. Ah, and don't worry, since these are magical tattoos they won't hurt at all. Oh and before I forget it, the tattoos will glow softly in their respective color while you have the Spirit out.", the Kings answers.

Lucy takes out her Keys and thinks about where she wants them.

"Would you like to hear where I would place them, Lucy?", Cer interrupts her thoughts. "Yes, of course!"

"How about you place them all on your upper back and shoulder blades? You could make a star map on your own back when you place them accordingly to how they would be placed on the sky. Like north at the top and east more to the right and so on.", Cer suggests.

Hearing this Lucy becomes sparkling eyes, loving his idea of a star map. "I love this idea, Cer! And then I could place the symbols from the Diamond Keys around my right wrist like a bracelet!"

"Very good decision, my lovely Princess. I believe that would add perfectly to your beauty and your be even more sexy.", Loke winks at her, back to his playboy-self. In return he gets an elbow to his side and a sweet smile from Lucy, the Scary Lucy sweet smile.

The Spirit King ignores this and asks Lucy to give him her Keys, except the Diamonds Keys since she doesn't have contracts with them.

Lucy watches as one Key after the other turns into a golden or silver dust. This dust then moves to Lucy's back and appears there again as the constellation tattoo, making Lucy's back tingle. This feeling only stays for a few seconds and then suddenly Lucy can feel the connection with all her Spirits, a big smile spreads over her face and her eyes shine in happiness.

Before she even thinks about it, Virgo appears with two mirrors. She stands with the bigger one behind Lucy and gives her the smaller one, lettings Lucy admire her new tattoos. Tattoos, she is already madly in love with.

"Wow, these are so beautiful!", Lucy breathes out, the only thing she is capable to at the moment. At this moment she really appreciates that the clothes Loke brought her shows her new tattoos completely.

From all sides came complements and approval of this place. Loke and Cer are fawning all over her, something she doesn't even notices with how much she distracted from her new tattoo.

"Yes, I must agree, this is a very good place, my Old Friend. Indeed a very good suggestion from our new friend Cerberus. But now, lets come to my surprise. I am sure you want to know what it is as fast as possible. You can come her now!", he raises his voice so who ever he called can hear him over the chatter.

The louder voice brings Lucy out of her daze and she looks up from her mirror.

The moment she does this her eyes meets dark blue ones, eyes she recognizes immediately. The same second the mirror falls to the ground and Lucy launches herself at the person these eyes belong to.

Eyes, she missed so much. Eyes, she feared she would never see again. Eyes, that glisten with unshed tears.

For a long moment everyone is silent, all watching the blonde girl and Spirit crying in each others arms. That is all both of them are capable right now, apart from Lucy's mumbling and repeating the name over and over.

The Kings signals to the others that they should follow him to give both women some time alone.

Virgo disappears along with the mirror and the shards of the broken one.

Loke walks with Cer and the King. The Kings leads them to another table, wanting to speak a little with Cerberus to get to know him a little better.

Luna joins them after some time and asks Cer if he wants to run with her, she wants to show him more of her world. Of course he agrees without having the need to think about it, he came to really like her in the short amount of time he spend with her.

In the other room Mage and Spirit slowly settle down to the ground, the crying has stopped but they, especially Lucy, cling to each other.

"Aquarius, is that really you? I am so sorry!", Lucy hiccups .

"Hush, you brat! It is really me. And there is no need to be sorry, I wanted you to break my Key. What use would it have been when you didn't break my Key and were dead now. I would rather have my Key broken hundreds of times before watching you die! And now pull yourself together, we've got a lot of work to do!", the soothing voice turns to her normal shouting at the end, these are just to much emotions to deal with.

"Work to do?", Lucy asks while sitting up a little in her Spirits embrace. It seems that even so the Spirit just said to pull together, she wasn't any better with that. Both of them are rather reluctant to leave the embrace.

"Yes, work to do! I see and I've heard that you still have my mark and I heard that you were able to manipulate water once but now apparently not anymore. Our King planned to give us a little time from the beginning but now he wants me to help you with this magic while you are here. And since you can't be here for to long we don't have much time for you to learn as much as possible. I will bring you now to another place where we can train, or more exactly to my home."

And before Lucy can replay anything Aquarius has already grabbed her to take her to their training place.

* * *

"When will you release me from these chains? It's been four days now! I can't stand this anymore!", Laxus growls annoyed, when yet again he wakes up with the chains still in place.

"We will let Virgo remove them, when I decide that you are good enough! Not a second earlier! And even though, yes you are doing better, you're still not good enough to move freely. And we all now that that is exactly what you will do as soon as you have the chance to do so, no matter if that would lead to you feeling worse again!", responds the healer to her stubborn patient.

"But the rest of my Team..." "No 'buts'! You breathed in the most of these particles and as a result suffered the most damage to your body! It's still a miracle that you are alive, so be grateful and stop whining! You humans are so annoying!", the healer interrupts him and then rushes out of the infirmary.

"You know boss man, maybe they would release you when you would stop your resistance and shouting and growling at them.", Bickslow suggest while his Babies echo "shouting and growling".

His only answer his yet again another growl and glare. Yes, Laxus really hates it to be chained and when someone tells him what to do and what not.

* * *

"To use this new Water Magic you have, you need to connect you magic with my mark on your collarbone. I believe that you did it on instinct and by coincident on this mission. It's similar to directing your magic to your new tattoos to call a Spirit, I know you have never done this before but later you will feel the similarities. You still can compare it with calling a Spirit. But instead of calling me through this mark and Gate, you call only my magic for you to use. When you can do this the hard part begins, learning how to control the water and finding out what exactly you can do. This will take to much time for us to do now but we can start with the basics.", Aquarius begins her lesson.

Lucy nods, determination shining in her eyes, she wants to make Aquarius proud after all is this her magic and a gift from her.

Aquarius has already explained to her that the Water Magic was only thought to protect her in the last fight against Jackal. But apparently she made the connection so strong with the help of the King that this is now a permanent connection. This means that Lucy will have something of Aquarius with her for the rest of her life, something that nobody can take away from her. And to at least feel the magic of her mother-figure will help her greatly.

Listening to her commands Lucy directs her magic to her mark, willing her magic to connect with it and to open a Gate to Aquarius Water Magic.

"Stop! You don't have pour this magic in this. You don't need as much magic as if to open a Gold Key, maybe Silver Key but probably even less than that. The more magic you pour into the, the more water you can control, but still you will never need as much magic as if to open a Gold Key. Opening Gates for Spirits costs this much magic because you have to hold the Spirit there and give him even more magic so that he is able to use magic, you know this already but for this there is no need to hold a Spirit there. We will start with only a little to learn control and then you can add more and more when you have enough control over the water amount. Try again!"

And so Lucy tries again and again, until Aquarius declare that this is the right amount of magic for now. Then Lucy has to do this again and again, until she doesn't have to think about it anymore and the magic moves on it's on to the mark with just a thought.

After an hour Aquarius is satisfies with this and tells Lucy that they will start with working on her control.

Aquarius sets down a cup with water in front Lucy and tells her to move the water inside. At first Lucy can only move the water a little while still being in the cup but after sometime she is able to lift some of it.

The water floats in front of her, Lucy moves it in different direction and then tries to form the water, beding it to her will.

Beside her Aquarius does the same, showing her what she wants her to do with the water.

* * *

"Finally!", Laxus shouts and jumps up. After ten days of being chained to his bed he is finally released.

He can't wait to find the blonde Mage and take his revenge on her. He still, don't now what he will do with her but he definitely will do something. There is no way around it for her, absolutely no way.

Of course he won't do anything to bad, after all he has changed and has realized that this was to help him but he can't just accepts this.

"Gramps? My Team and I have spoken about it and we want to go to Tenrou to train there a little before we start with mission again. Before you say anything, I now that I can't leave right now, that I still have to rest some more before I can train but I just wanted to tell you this ahead.", Laxus speaks faster when he notices his Gramps opening his mouth to probably protest.

 _Hmm... Lucy could be there... Who knows how long she will be in the Spirit World. But I can't really say anything against it. It is after all something they probably should do before they start with missions again. I am going to allow them but don't say anything about Lucy maybe being there, they would just ask questions I can't answer in case Lucy isn't back by then. And who knows, maybe Lucy really will be gone for three month or longer..._

"Alright, I believe two more weeks here with just a little movement should be long enough before you go. But I warn you, don't overexert your body! And only start with small exercises and intensify little by little. That goes for all of you!", and with that warning Porlyusica leaves once again.

"Will do!", Laxus shouts after her, for the moment to happy to move without chains to complain about this.

* * *

"Alright, lets take a break and eat together with our King and the other Spirits.", Aquarius stops Lucy, who tries to separate the water bubble in front of her to then move the single water bubbles in different ways at the same time.

"Good! I'm so hungry! This is really exhausting! I wonder why I have still magic left to do anything at all...", Lucy murmurs to herself.

Aquarius still hears her and answers, "That is because you are surrounded by celestial magic particles, there are so much here that your containers can replenish themselves much faster. In fact I believe that your containers will have grown quite a bit when you are back to Earthland, because of this fast replenishment.

"Oh, so that means if I would have used my magic the last time I was here before the GMG, my containers would have grown too? And that they only grow when I use my magic here?", Lucy asks curious.

"Well, they still grow a bit while being here without you using magic. But this growth would be so little that you would only notice it when you would be here for a very long time. And now you brat, no more questions!", she shouts the last, being once again the Aquarius Lucy knows and loves.

* * *

"Good to be here! Can we just enjoy our first day here?", Evergreen asks, already imagine laying on the beach under the hot sun.

Laxus was just about to answer when something catches his attention. It's a smell he can't assign properly at first but knows that from somewhere he remembers it.

 _Strawberries... and what it the rest... hmm... could be honey... Strawberries and Honey... from where do I know this smell... It feels as if something misses, as if this smell isn't complete..._

While thinking about it Laxus already follows this scent, until he arrives in front of Lucy's tent. There a goes around the tent, watching for any sign that something is there and then the missing component hits is nose, his nostrils flare.

 _Stardust... Strawberries, Honey and Stardust! This is Blondie's scent! The Strawberries and Honey are her scent and the Stardust comes from her magic..._

"Blondie is here? Why didn't Gramps tell us about this?", Laxus asks himself.

"Blondie? You mean Miss Lucy? She is here?", Freed questions after hearing his Leader.

"Well this smells like here, but the smell is older, like she wasn't here in a longer time. The only reason I can detect her scent is probably because there are a few things of her still in this tent.", Laxus explains after looking shortly inside.

"Maybe she is here to train just like we, but had to leave because of something but plans to come back and didn't want to take this stuff with her. Maybe she even will come back while we are still here...", Evergreen suggests.

"Yeah, and then boss man can thank her for being chained to his bed!", Bickslow grins with his tongue out. "Chained to bed, chained to bed", Bickslow's Babies sing while dancing around Laxus.

"Thank her?! I will get her back for this!", Laxus growls. But even though he growls like that you can see that he isn't as angry about it anymore. He is still pretty annoyed, but the thoughts about paying the blonde back for if are now more in the back of his head and only emerge when someone reminds him about it.

* * *

"You know, for being a whiny brat you did very good! Train more when being back on Earthland and maybe someday you will be half as good as me!", Aquarius tells Lucy. The real meaning behind it 'I am so proud of you!' Aquarius can't word out but Lucy understands her nonetheless.

"I will give my best! I promise you that! And I will make you proud! I will let no one forget the power of the Water Bearer.", Lucy smiles up at her, while hugging her.

It's time for Lucy to go back to Earthland, she is already longer here than originally planned. The plan was for her to really only stay a whole day. But with all the training with Aquarius and the King showing her how to use the dagger, the time fly by and suddenly she was four month gone from Earthland.

Lucy of course spend as much time as possible with Aquarius, knowing that this will most like be the last time she has the chance to see here. And even though the thought still hurts her, she knows that she will be better now. Aquarius is after all always by her side with her Water Magic and they can still communicate through her other Spirits. Something Lucy plans to do often, very often.

"And I promise you that I will try not to call Scorpio so often, I don't want to interrupts your Dates after all.", Lucy adds as an afterthought.

"You better do! Otherwise, I swear I will find a way to come and wash you away!", Aquarius threatens. A threat that is not very believable at the moment with the sad smile and tears in her eyes, she don't want Lucy to leave but know that she has to go anyway.

"Thanks, Stache Face for this great time, all the presents and especially the chance to see Aquarius again!", Lucy turns around, still in Aquarius arms, to smile up at the King.

"Old Friend, it was a joy to have you here with us. If possible I would keep you here, but we all know that this is not possible. You have to go back to your other family. I wish you a good journey and good luck with finding the other Diamond Keys! Remember that you can search for Keys through meditation now!", he grins one last time at her and then leave to give her and Aquarius a few seconds alone to say goodbye.

"I will miss you!", Lucy clings one last time to her mother-figure, not wanting to let her go and tears running down her cheeks.

"I will miss you too, you brat! When you are back, try to finally find a boyfriend! You won't be getting any younger!", with that last Aquarius like statement she practically shows Lucy out of her arms, after pressing her to herself firmly one last time, and then floats away so nobody can see her tears.

Hearing that Lucy can only laugh through her own tears before Virgo brings her and Cer back to Earthland.

* * *

 **Finally I have this Chapter finished, sometimes I thought to stop and just update at an earlier point and only post around the half but then I just wrote and wrote and wrote... and now it's the middle of the night and I hope that there aren't to many mistakes...**

 **More so I hope that the emotions are alright? Too much? Too less?**

 **Oh and this is the longest Chapter I have ever written, twice as long as my normal Chapters. Hopefully this is worth it?**


	14. Chapter 14

"Princess, we have arrived. Shall I look how your camp looks? Should I pack everything up so that you can leave? Or do you want to stay here a little longer? Punishment?", comes the onslaught of questions from Virgo the moment they arrive back on Tenrou.

"Uhh... I think I will stay here for one or two more days. I want to finally make contracts with my Diamond Keys, I should have enough magic for that now... So I would really appreciate it if you could look after our camp. Oh and please bring me my Com, I need to call Master. And of course no punishment.", Lucy decides. Virgo bows and tunnels to the camp.

In the meantime Cer decides to run one time around the whole island, wanting to look for anything suspicious or other people. People he smelled the moment they arrived.

"Princess, I have..." "Lucy, there was someone else here while we were gone! It can't be too long ago they left the island, a few days at the most. I can smell them all over the island, it were four people. We shou...", the next moment Cer lays chained and gagged on the floor, staring in complete shock at the Spirit, who only shows her normal stoic expression.

"Princess, there was something I wanted to tell before he interrupted me so rudely. I found an old camp near yours and someone looked at your things but didn't do anything to them. To me it seams as if someone only wanted to know who these things belonged to, from the looks I assume it were some of your Guild mates. But you should still confirm this with your Master, here is your requested Com. Do I need punishment for interrupting the Hellhound and chaining him up? Or for making assumptions?", asks Virgo with somewhat sparkling eyes, making it seem like she only took these measures to get punished.

Lucy who still stares in shock at her friend needs a few minutes to answer her Spirit and take the Com she holds out for her to take, "Uhm, no punishment for you, he did interrupt you after all. But please release him and then I will call Master to ask if someone was here while we were in the Celestial World."

"Then I will do as you asked, Princess.", and with these words Virgo takes Cer with her to the camp to release him, knowing that Lucy still wants to surprise her Guild with Cer in the future.

"Lucy, my child! Good to hear from you again, it's been such a long time! You were gone for four month!", the Master looks at her pouting.

"Yes, I'm back.", she smiles at Master a little touched that he is so overjoyed, "Say Master, were there other on Tenrou while I wasn't here? I just got back but Virgo found another camp near mine and that means who ever was here must know that I was here too."

"Laxus and his Team requested to train on Tenrou before restarting with missions again after their recovery. But don't worry, I didn't tell them that you might be there, since I didn't know if you come back while they are there or not. And of course I didn't tell them anything about you being in the Spirit World. In fact you missed them by one day, they left yesterday morning and arrived back at the Guild in the evening.", he tells her.

"Well, it seems like luck was on my side, it would have been hard to explain them from where I suddenly came.", at this Master can only laugh thinking that there is another reason for her to be happy that she didn't meet his grandson.

"Luck, indeed. I warn you, Laxus was really furious because of the chains and promised to take some revenge on you. What kind of I don't know, and I'm sure that he will do nothing to harm you, especially since it seems like he has calmed down. But I still wanted to warn you..." "Ohh... the chains... I totally forgot about that... hehe... Lucky me! Well, anyway, you are right, I too don't believe that he would do something to harm me. Oh man, I would have loved to see him chained up with nothing he can do against it!", Lucy smirks at her last thought.

"I did, enjoy seeing him like this. And it really helped him to recover faster, so thanks again for that my child. Anyway, something else we need to speak about, what do you plan to do next? And do you still want me to erase your Guild mark when you leave Tenrou?", Master looks at her sadly now, not wanting to take away her mark, even though it would only be temporary.

"I plan on staying a few more days, there are a few things I want to do before I leave. And yes I still want you to erase it, you know that it will only be temporary, it's just that already now I want a different color and place but I'm sure that this will change again on my travels. When I come back to the Guild I want it to be a fresh start. And even without the mark, Fairy Tail will still be my family!", she answers him. "Very well, if that is what you wish I will do as you ask when you leave Tenrou, just call me when you are ready. And know that you can always ask for help even when you don't have your mark.", he smiles gently at her, knowing that sometimes you just have to let a Fairy fly freely.

They exchange a few more words about what happened while she was away and then end the call.

* * *

Normally Lucy would have probably immediately made the contracts with her Diamond Keys and she desperately wants to do just that but decides against him, thinking that for the start she should check how much magic she has at the moment. She remembers clearly that Aquarius explained her that her containers will grow quite a bit, with her using so much magic in the Spirit World and now she really wants ti know just how much they did grow. And the easiest way for her to find out is to mediate, so she just does that.

Lucy searches the island for a quite place after telling Cer what she is planning, and sits down calmly. A quick talk with Capricorn through their new bond tells her that she can do this alone as to not waste magic to call him, so she really sees how much magic she has. But Capricorn promises her to look after her through their bond and warn her if he thinks she does something wrong or too long.

She settles down and reaches within herself for her magic. The moment she can feel her magic, she feels her large power up. Another thing she can feel is the magic coming from her new tattoos and her new and stronger bond with her Spirits. Concentrating back on her magic power she begins to steadily release her magic, adding more and more magic to the flow.

The golden glow around her becomes so bright that anyone who would have been there would have to close their eyes. And the pressure around her gets higher and higher. The air is whipping around her and small things are being lifted from the ground around her.

She still adds more magic and then starts to slowly lift from the ground herself, higher and higher until she is at least three feet over the ground. Having reached this high she stops and levitates in this place.

Magic pours out of her, more things around her begin to float, only to be whipped away by the wind around her, none reaching her.

 _"Miss Lucy, I advise you to release your magic around you in a bigger radius. Right now you are concentrating a lot of magic around you and if you would any more it could lead to cracks in the ground. When you send your magic farther away from you, the pressure directly around you will decrease and the golden glow will become less bright but reach farther away. This is similar to the kind of meditation you will use when searching for other Keys, the only difference then is that you will only send a small steady stream of your magic, so that there won't be a glow or detectable magic_ _pressure, and your senses along with your magic._ _Oh and Miss Lucy, soon you will reach your second origin, to truly know how strong you are at the moment you should open it and use during your meditation._ ", Capricorn stops her before she releases anymore of her magic.

Hearing his advise Lucy stops to release more magic and reaches out her senses to feel for her magic around her, wanting to know how far her magic around her reaches. Next she does exactly as Capricorn told her to do, she sends her magic farther away from her and her senses along with the new released magic, wanting to know how far she can send her magic.

Now with the magic not being concentrated directly around her the wind gets slower and she levitates closer to the ground, but still remains floating.

This is a completely new experience for her. She can feel and somehow see everything around her; the earth, the flowers and trees, the animals, even the air moving around her. And the most beautiful is the magic, the magic is everywhere around. Concentrated on different places, showing her that every being around her has some magic within.

All this is so overbearing that she almost misses the moment where she had to open her second origin. She feels the moment it is open, feeling how magic fills her once again and she sends her magic even farther away.

Time goes by and Lucy completely relishes in this new experience, feeling pure bliss.

That is until she feels a sudden pull on her magic, a little started she almost loses her control on her magic. After taking a few deep breaths to regain her control, Lucy searches for this pull again. It was somewhat familiar.

Following this pull with her senses she detects a place where more magic is concentrated. She directs her senses and magic to this place, wanting to find out what pulled her magic, the feeling is just so familiar. But she can't place from where she recognizes it. The magic coming from this place feels like the nature around her and like something other, and this other thing she can't identify.

 _"Miss Lucy, this feels like a Celestial Key. The other magic, beside the nature-feeling, is Celestial Magic. That is why you have a feeling to know this. And from the feeling I get, it seems to be another Diamond Key. You do not have a lot of magic left. You should memorize where exactly this place is, so that you can search the Key later. Sometimes it is hard to remember those things, after stopping your meditation because you are so exhausted. Especially now that you have released more magic than ever, with your second origin on top."_

On more time Lucy reaches out with her senses to find the Key and memorize the place before she slowly starts to pull her magic back inside of her.

First she fills her second origin, filling it and then pulling in some more magic to expand it, before closing this container. Next she pulls the rest of her magic back inside of her first origin, again pulling more magic inside of her than she released to expand this one too.

Filled with magic, Lucy falls back and just rests for a moment before she opens her eyes again.

Upon opening her eyes she notices how far the sun has moved while she was meditating. They arrived at some point in the morning and now it has to be noon or even later, meaning that she was meditating for roughly an hour and a half.

 _"To be exact, you meditated for one hour, thirty-seven minutes and twenty-five seconds, Miss Lucy." "Oh Horologium, thanks for that information!"_

 _I really need to get accustomed to them suddenly speaking with me through our new bond. This is a little frightening at the moment, but it still love it!_

Before Lucy can think further about this she feels something wet on her face, apparently she had closed her eyes again. Another wet feeling later she jolts up and opens her eyes wide, looking around her frantically.

The next moment she hears laughter. Beside her is Cer in his puppy form, that's why she didn't see him the moment she opened her eyes, laughing pretty hard.

She grabs his nape and holds him up in front of her face, glaring at the still laughing little puppy. Feeling her glare, the laughter slowly dies down and changes to big puppy eyes, looking pleadingly up at her.

"You little... you know exactly what this does to me!", and the next moment she practically cuddles him to death.

 _"Princess, I left lunch at your camp. Punishment for doing this on my own accord?" "Thanks you Virgo, and as always no punishment."_

Again Lucy feels Cer licking her face. "Oi, why do you do that?" "Well, you were spacing out..." "Oh.. yeah, that's my Spirits talking with me through our new bond, I need to get accustomed to this. Virgo just told me that she left us lunch at out camp. Should we go eat?"

The puppy in her arms begins to wag it's tail at the mention of food, so Lucy stands up, still with him in her arms, and walks back to their camp.

They eat in content silent and after that go to the ocean, wanting to play a little in the water.

"So tomorrow you will make your contracts with the Diamond Keys and the day after that we will leave?", Cer asks now that they lay on the beach, relaxing in the sand. "Yes, that is my plan, hopefully I have enough magic to make both contracts tomorrow. While meditating I could feel how much my containers grew, but still, it takes a lot magic to open their Gates. It could be that I need to make on in the morning and then wait for the second to make the other.", she answers him.

"Oh I think you will definitely be able to make both contracts tomorrow, I could feel your magic earlier and I can only say that I never before had a friend with this much magic. It is amazing how much your magic grew in the Spirit World!" "Wait! I really forgot! Cer, there is a Diamond Key here on Tenrou! I found the Key during my meditation! So after finding the actual Key, I have three Keys to make a contract with!", Lucy suddenly shouts out, not thinking that she would really forget something this important.

"Really? That's amazing! Let's search for the Key now! How about you ride on my back? I wanted to try this with you the whole time and I know how exhausted you are!", Cer suggests. At this Lucy's eyes begin to sparkle, "Yeah, let's do that! I want to know how riding on your back feels and your are right, I really am pretty exhausted..."

They go back to camp, so that Lucy can change her clothes and leave their towels their.

* * *

"Wow! This was amazing! Cer, you are so fast! How can you see anything clearly while running this fast?! And you are probably faster with out me and somewhere where you can run without and hindrances! Just wow!", Lucy says in awe, never before has she been this fast.

Cer can only chuckle at her behavior, Lucy being still on his back can feel the vibrations from this chuckle. "Well, yes, I can run faster than this but at some point it really becomes hard to see clearly. So I only run faster when there is the need to or I know the path pretty well. Soo... This should be the place where your new Diamond Key should be, maybe we should start looking. It's getting darker after all. And this being a cave doesn't make it lighter at all."

That is the moment, Lucy realizes that she is still on his back, she flushes a little, it feels just too good, and then slides down his back. "Yes, it should be somewhere around here, lets starts with our search, and thanks again that you are helping me!", she smiles brightly at him, now completely focused on finding the Key, full of anticipation to finally have this Key in her hands.

They split up to cover more ground, knowing that they Key has to be close but that they cave has a lot of space to hide something, especially something as small as a Celestial Key.

"Lucy, I think I found something! You have to look at this!", comes the astonished and somewhat breathless call from Cer. Lucy follows his voice and reaches a small crack in the wall. Coming to the conclusion that Cer must be calling from somewhere inside of this crack she decides to try out if she fits through this crack. It's very tight and at some point she almost stuck, but she barely made it through.

"Cer, what is it tha...", Lucy trails of upon seeing what lays behind this small crack.

"Wow! A little paradise!", Lucy breathes out, eyes wide open, staring and the beautiful and and tranquil scene before her.

There inside the cave is another hidden small cave. And this one if green, flowers and gras spreading over the ground and walls, a little clear pond on one side and in the middle the most beautiful and biggest flower she had ever seen.

As not to disturb this scene Lucy slowly walks around this cave, looking at everything carefully, relishing in the feeling this cave gives of. And now inside the cave she can feel the Key again. After admiring everything around her she begins to search for the Key. As she could have thought the Key is by the beautiful flower in the middle, laying on one big blossom.

She admires the beauty of this Key, just like the others it's made of diamond with flower tendrils and little blossoms inside.

Before Lucy can reach out to touch and take the Key, the magic pressure around them rises, and a blossoms starts to suddenly grow bigger and bigger until it pops open and before them stands a beautiful women.

She wears a white flowing summer dress with lace. Her feet are bare, except from a flower tendril, with little blossoms, that winds around both her legs, as well as around her arms. She has brown hair with flowers in different colors woven in, her eyes are the deepest green Lucy has ever seen. She has a gently smile on her full lips but you can see that she won't hesitate to attack from the look in her eyes.

"Who are you? And what do you plan to do with my Key?!", she demands to know, but not in an unkind voice.

"My name is Lucy Heartfilia and this is my friend Cerberus. I am searching for the Diamond Keys. I already have to other Diamond Keys but weren't able to make a contract until now. I just recently returned from the Celestial World where this King told me to search for the rest of your Keys, because I am able to open your Gates. So I really hope you would allow me to take your Key, make a contract with me and become part of my family.", Lucy greets and then explains her purpose with a happy smile. Cer beside her only nods, to enraptured with the beauty of this women, even though he has to admit that Luna is prettier in his eyes.

"My name is Kaede and I am the Fairy of Earth, with the specialty in nature or to be more accurate Plant Magic. And from what I can feel from you and from what my plants are telling me, I will allow you to hold my Key and make a contract with you. Be warned that I hate people who do something to nature and that I would fight against you if you harm nature without any reason! Apart from that I am ready to make a contract with you. Oh and if you wonder why I look like this, this is my human form, in my Fairy form you wouldn't be able to see me.", the Fairy warns her but agrees to making a contract with her, after all the plants told her about this girl already and she must they that she has a good feeling with this mage.

"Really? That would be so great! And don't worry, I too dislike people who harm nature. And good to know with your human and Fairy form. Can I call you in your Fairy form? And how is it even possible for you to appear here? I mean I didn't open your Gate and the other Fairies didn't do that...", she asks curiously.

"Yes, you can call me, or all of us for that matter, in our Fairy form. That way nobody would be able to see us and only you can hear us, that is good during fights for example. And well, that is because of this place here. This island has more magic and is full of nature, giving me enough strange to open my own Gate for a little while, even without being contracted to someone. So lets do the contract now.", she says while taking her Key from the blossom and stepping closer to Lucy, holding the Key out for her to take.

"Sadly the contract has to wait, at the moment I don't have enough magic to reopen your Gate, because I meditated this morning and am now to exhausted. I plan on making the other two contracts tomorrow, so I would call you again tomorrow.", Lucy explains sorrowful, wanting noting more than to make the contract at the moment but she is just too exhausted.

"Oh don't worry about this, there is no need for you to reopen my Gate. Our contracts are a little different from normal Golden or Silver Keys. For one, you can call us whenever you want and need us and then the way we seal our contracts, or like we call it bond, is different. You only have to hold my Key and then we seal the bond with a Kiss." "A Kiss?" "Yes, a Kiss, a real Kiss on the lips. I know this can be shocking but we Fairy are really open with our affections and contracts or bonds are something very personal and we need to trust the person we make a bond with. And to show this trust we Kiss. It doesn't have to be a long Kiss, but only touching the lips isn't enough.", Kaede explains to her, coming even closer to Lucy.

And before Lucy can react, the Fairy already presses her lips to Lucy's in a gently kiss. At first Lucy freezes up in shock but when she feels the gently hand on her left cheek she shyly responds. She gingerly moves her own lips against the others while placing her left and over Kaede's on her cheek. The kiss merely lasts a few seconds, but is so sweet in itself that it feels much longer. And the moment they part lips again Lucy can feel the bond to her new Spirit taking place.

Cer who only just awakened from his shock over the beauty of the Fairy falls in another shock. Eyes wide open and mouth agape, he stares at Lucy and Kaede as they Kiss. The kiss just looks so sensual but at the same time has nothing sexual about it that Cer absolutely doesn't know what to think. To him too, it seems if if the two were kissing for a long time, when their lips part again, both are a little flushed and are looking deep into each others eyes.

Looking into Kaede's eyes, Lucy sees the trust the Spirit has for her and tries to express her own trust and love for her Spirits with her own eyes. The moment between them lasts until Cer comes back to his senses and coughs a little awkwardly, having the feeling that he just witnessed something so personal that no one else should be allowed to see it. But he clearly sees the beauty in this moment, two beings Kiss to form a bond between them, a bond of deep trust and friendship. A bond that will last for as long as they both live.

* * *

 **So, so sorry that this once again took me so long! I wanted to have this posted such a long time ago... But sadly my arm got hurt and so I couldn't bend it without it hurting, leading to me not being able to write on my Laptop or Tablet and I hate to write on my phone because I'm so slow...**

 **But now my arm is a little better and I finally was able to finish this story on my Tablet.**

 **I hope you like this Chapter and are not too sad that they missed each other, but I promise I have the perfect meeting for them in my mind (I have this scene in my mind since I started writing this story and can't wait to finally reach this part!) and it should only be one or two more Chapter before they finally see each other in a hopeful epic meeting.**

 **And for the Guest who asked and everyone else who wants to know: No I don't plan on her getting Star Dress. I just thought that with new Spirits, Water Magic, Spells and the Dagger she would become too powerful if she had the Star Dress too.**

 **Please tell me what you think, I always love to read your reviews! :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**I'm so super sorry! I can't even begin to explain why this took me so fricking long!  
** **But I at least want to tell you a little. As you know I was at University, but shortly after I updated my other story "Masters Idea" it got clear that I couldn't continue with it... Then my Dad had to go to the hospital (he is now good and starts working again this week) and I had to find something new to do..  
** **I have found something new, I started in April. There it took me some time to get used to my new schedule and such, adding to all this I had some writers block...  
** **But now I'm, hopefully, back!  
**

 **Again, sorry to let you wait for so long. I hope that I didn't let you wait too long...**

 **And now on with the story, as always tell me what you think!**

 **Love you all (and thanks to all of you who asked me when I will continue, this always gave me a little burst to write),**

 **Miyuki**

* * *

Morning came much too fast, but also much too slow for Lucy. Physically she is still exhausted from yesterday, but magically, she knows, that she should have enough back to try and make her new contracts. And she really wants to make these contracts, she has already waited so long to finally meet them and to hopefully be allowed to welcome them in her family.

Other than her want to finally meet them, there is the little puppy currently nuzzling her face with three heads at the same time that wants her to wake up. And she has the feeling that if she doesn't stand up soon, she will end up with three tongues liking all over her face. And while she loves Cer no matter which form he takes on, that is something she will probably or more likely certainly never like.

"Awake, I'm awake, Cer!", with that she wraps her arms around the little Hellhound, rolls onto her side and presses him against her chest. Now, she is the one nuzzling him.

 _"Luuucy"_ , she hears Cer, for the first time, whining telepathically. He never did this before so she almost forgot that he can do this, luckily she now has her Spirits doing this too, so it doesn't gave her as much of a fright as it would have done otherwise. _"Come on, stand up! You're suffocating me! Luuucyyyy!"_

"Okay, okay. But you know, you're the one who started this...", she grins down at the puppy in her arms. "And..."

"Princess, breakfast is ready for the both of you. Capricorn wants me to tell you that you shouldn't call any of us today, before you have made your new contracts, to conserve your magic power. And he wants you to think about how and when you want to leave the island. Is it punishment time?", Virgo steps into their tent.

The word 'breakfast' was all it took for Cer to transform into his human form and leave the tent, all in mere seconds. Lucy took a little longer since the spoken words triggered something inside of her, she never really thought about how they will leave the island. She will have to think about it later, now breakfast is in order and then her new contracts.

"Thanks, Virgo. And no, no punishment for you. You can tell Capricorn that I will take his advise in both matters and that I will let you know when I have decided when and how to leave the island.", she smiles at her Spirit while taking the offered clothes to change out of her sleepwear.

After a quick breakfast Lucy and Cer make their way to the beach, wanting an open and large place to summon her, hopefully, new Spirits and Friends.

Over breakfast, her and Cer spoke about which Spirit she should call first and when they want to leave the island. They came to the conclusion that she will call Astro first and if she has enough magic left Taryn next. Their departure depends on this too, if she can make both contracts today they want to try and leave the next day, if they can find a way to do so, if she can't, they will add another day to their stay here on Tenrou.

Since in the book she got stood nothing about an incantation for the Diamond Keys, Lucy hopes that she can use the one she uses for her other Spirits. "I am linked to the path to the World of Celestial Spirits, now! O Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate. Open Gate of the Star Fairy, Astro!"

Feeling an answer, she pumps more and more magic into the Key until she feels the Gate opening. The air in front of them begins to darken to a night blue, then slowly a golden-yellow star begins to form in the middle of it. The star grows bigger and bigger until he bursts into many tiny golden particles, these particles then form themselves into a human form.

Lucy can only stare at the sheer beauty of the male Fairy, he is probably 6'2". He only wears a golden open vest with dark blue swirls which are looking like tiny stars, this gives her the view of a perfect sculptured and muscular, but still slender, chest. His skin has a beautiful cream color, almost looking like soft marble.

His pants are in the same dark blue as the swirls. His feet are bare. His hair goes down to his waist and looks like the night sky, dark blue with golden star clips. These clips are holding thin wisps in place on the back of his head where they come together into a braid laying on top of his otherwise open hair.

Rich golden eyes are looking at her with a soft smile playing on full lips. "Hello, my name is Astro. And you must be my new Key-Holder. Would you tell me your name, Miss?", he begins to speak with a velvet tone.

"Hello Astro, my name is Lucy Heartfilia and this is Cerberus or Cer. I'm happy to finally meet you after having your Key for so long already. I really hope that you want to make a contract with me, or like Kaede already explained to me, form a bond. And I hope even more that we become great friends and that I can welcome you in my family.", she smiles at the the Fairy in front of her, having stepped a little closer with Cer now at her side.

His smile widens a little after hearing what she said about joining her family, even without her saying it he would have known how good of a person she is. He can feel the special connection she has with the stars because of his own magic. "Then, Miss Lucy, let us form our new bond, I am happy to bond with such a beautiful and kind woman." His eyes gain a certain twinkle while he leans down, bringing his head closer hers, "If you already made the bond with Kaede, you should know what that means right? You know what we have to do now, right, Miss Lucy?" By now he had his mouth beside her ear, whispering the last part softly and making her shudder a little.

In her shock, Lucy's only reaction is a nod. A soft chuckle escapes his lips before he leans back a little to be able to gaze into her eyes. For all the teasing he does at the moment, he still wants her to feel comfortable with him. It's been a long time since he acted this way, and it really surprises him that he does so, but it probably has something to do with the fact that she reminds him a little of his long deceased wife. That, and the fact that her reactions are just too adorable to not tease her at least a little.

With him being this up close, Lucy can see delicate golden stars tattooed around his eyes in a seemingly random pattern, making him even more beautiful and enthralling in her eyes.

 _I could bet that this will be a gentle and beautiful kiss, his lips look so...,_ was all she could think before she felt his soft lips on her own. _I was right!_

This time she doesn't hesitate, no on the contrary, she closes her eyes and enjoys the feeling of his wonderfully tender and soft lips on hers before she begins to move her own in sync with his.

She concentrates all of her thoughts on Astro and their kiss, already feeling the deep connection between them forming. A feeling, oh so beautiful, flows through her whole body and she can feel her magic reacting to his.

If she would have opened her eyes, she would have seen their magic moving around them, in the form of million golden particles, and giving them an ethereal glow. The most of it seeming to concentrate over their hearts and where one would suspect the soul and magic container.

Even if she can't see their magic moving and connecting around the she can feel it. They both can feel the magical bond between the forming, and, while their lips still move against one another in perfect harmony, a happy smile appears on both faces.

Even though they can feel that their bond has taken place and is completed, they continue the kiss, too absorbed in this beautiful feeling to just stop now.

Slowly, but too fast nonetheless, their movement lessens until the kiss stops entirely. Still too captivated in the moment, they don't move away, instead they lean their foreheads against each other, gazing in the others eyes with a blissful smile on their lips.

"Little star, that was truly entrancing, we have formed such a beautiful and strong bond!", Astro is the first to break the silence between them with a whisper. Lucy's smile only widens at hearing this.

Astro moves a little away from her, his arms holding her in a loose hug and he looks down at her with his own lips in a big smile. After a few seconds his eyes once again gain this certain twinkle before he leans down, presses a kiss to her right cheek and whispers in her ear, "I will definitely come by now and then to maybe get more of this." And before Lucy has the chance to say anything at all to this he winks at her and vanishes in a showers of golden stars.

Lucy stands there, blinking, still not really realizing what he just told her.

Only Cer's laughing at her side brings her out of her stupor, she shakes her head and a gentle smile appears on her face, thinking about her new bond. Moments later she blanches, now everything he just said really registering in her head, "Wait! What?! Does that mean, that they can open their own Gates?! Oh no..."

"Yes, this is exactly what it means, little star", the golden stars that appear with Astro weren't even gone before he once again vanishes back.

Seeing the horror in her eyes and hearing her muttering that she didn't get the chance to ask what his abilities are Cer laughs harder, almost falling to the ground with how hard he laughs.

The next second he really is on the ground, groaning in pain. He just received his very first Lucy Kick.

"That's what you get for laughing at me!", she sticks her tongue out at him, turns back around and takes out the last remaining Key to make a contract with. "I am linked to the path to the World of Celestial Spirits, now! O Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate. Open Gate of the Lightning Fairy, Taryn!"

This time there is now slow appearing, the loud band and short, dazzling flash is still impressiv enough. When she can open her eyes again he already stands there in all his glory.

This one has nothing that one would make him think that he is a prince, if the book is correct. Maybe his yellow, sparkling eyes, they have this certain look that practically demands obedience.

But other than that he looks more like a fighter. He is as muscular as Laxus, if not even more but still not too much from what she can tell. With his 6'5 he is taller than Astro or even Laxus. Apart from his muscular form and height he looks completely different from Laxus.

He is completely bare chested, not even wearing a vest like Astro. Resting on the middle of his tanned chest is a black leather necklace with what seems to be lightning bolts inside a big, flat translucent stone.

He wears light grey pants and black boots. His dark grey-blue hair, looking like the sky just before the storm starts, is just as short and spiked as Laxus'.

When he crosses his arms in front of his chest, looking down at her with a raised eyebrow, reminding her of Laxus once again, she stops looking him up and down and begins to finally speak, a light blush on her cheeks. She didn't notice that he, too, was checking her out and nodded to himself before the crossing of his arms got her attention.

"Hello Taryn, my name is..."

"Lucy Heartfilia, the others told me already Blondie.", he smirks down at her. Hearing this she can only roll with her eyes, another reminder of the Lightning Slayer. It seems that similar magic leads to similar behavior.

"Well, if you already know about me, do you want to be a part of our family and form a bond with me?", she asks him, for now not telling him to stop calling her that.

His smirk widens, "What do you think, Blondie?"

And with that he steps directly in front of her, leans down and winds his arms around her hips, pulling her closer to himself so that she has to stand on her tiptoes. He doesn't give her the chance to do anything at all before he captures her lips with his own.

With her eyes wide open in shock, she can see that the sparkle in his eyes are tiny bolts flashing through them.

Contrary to his almost attack at kissing her, his lips against her are soft, moving in a slow motion while he waits for her reaction with his own eyes half closed.

A soft nip on her lower lip lets her overcome her shock. After another gaze into his eyes she closes her eyes and lays her hands on his shoulders.

Knowing that she is okay with him kissing her, Taryn closes his eyes fully and speeds up his lips movement. It's still not a wild make-out like kiss but more searing than the once she had with the other Fairies, again something that she guesses has to do with the origin of his magic.

A sigh escapes her and she angles her head to give him better access to her lips, all the while upping her own motion in reaction to his.

Lucy can feel the air around them charging with electricity, while their bond begins to form. One of his arms moves up from her hip to her head, tangling his fingers in her hair. Her own arms wound around his shoulders, pressing herself a little closer to him.

More and more electricity begins to charge around them, leading to little lightning bolts unloading around them. Before the kiss can get even more heated, Lucy feels some of these lightning bolts moving across her skin, tickling her in the process. The moment the bolts reach her side, she can't stop a giggle spilling from her lips, effectively ending the kiss.

Another, this time stronger, bolts tickles her side and a full laughter erupts. She doubles over, almost smashing her forehead against his lips, since he followed her mouth with his to continue their kiss.

Seeing that there is no way to continue at the moment and that their bond is completed, he untangles his fingers from her hair and places them back on her back, pulling her in a hug and falls in with her laughter. It's such a happy and contagious laughter that he really has no other choice but to laugh along with her, even though he is normally not the type for that.

Lucy wraps her own arms around him more tightly, relishing in the hug and loving the feel of his chest vibrating in laughter against her own. It's just such a nice feeling to know that she made him this happy, that she has another bond formed and another member added to her family.

A few minutes later the laughter slowly dies out, a happy smile staying on both their faces.

"So Taryn, Kaede told me that you are available when ever I need you and from Astro I found out that you can appear on you own magic, is that true? Or do you maybe want to have some days free? Or could it be that only Astro is able to do so? Oh, and what exactly is your magic? In a book I got stood that you can not only , control one form of lightning but different because you were the prince, is that correct?", the words spill from her lips.

At this another laughter erupts from the male Fairy holding her in his arms.

After he calmed down again he answers her with a grin, nearly smirk, "Yes, you can call me out when ever you want and yes I, too, can come out on my own. But this has to do with the strength of the bond. Right now, I probably could't do so, but after you adding out tattoos we all should be able to come out when ever we want to. And yes, I can control and use different kinds of lightning because I was the prince." , at the end is tone turns smug.

Lucy ignores this, looking at him curiously, "Can you show me? And is it true, that while using your magic here, you use your own and not mine?"

"Yes, that is true, since we were originally from Earthland we can only need you to call us here and to hold open the Gate so that we can stay here. Maybe another time, Blondie, you look a little exhausted. And maybe you should stop pumping so much of your magic in holding open my Gate, you only need this much to open the Gate but once it's open you need less to actually hold it open.", a cocky smirks appears.

Her eyes widening, Lucy focuses on her magic and realizes that he is right, she really lost a lot of her magic. And looking around them she realizes that it's rather late, contracting both Fairies took longer than she thought. The reason being probably in both cases the kiss, a kiss that let her forget the time.

Hurriedly she lessens the magic she pushes into the Key, feeling an instant relief with the lesser strain on her magic. Now she realizes how exhausted she really is, the high she got from contracting two new Spirits and gaining more family members in the process is diminishing rather fast.

"Ugh, why didn't you tell me so sooner? And could't you please stop calling me that, that's just so unimaginative. I mean I'm not calling you Bolt oder Sparkling Eye, or do I? Or would you like me to call you that?", she grins up at him, seeing the scowl appearing on his face while hearing her own unimaginative nicknames for him.

"You won't call me that! I am the prince after all!", a cocky grin appears back on his face, one eyebrow lift up he looks challenging at her, "We'll see, if I stop or not. Blondie. And I didn't dell you sooner because I wanted to see if you would notice on you own."

"Yeah, we'll see Sparkle.", she shots back with her own challenging look, "And somehow I don't believe you. I have the feeling that our kiss distracted you so much that you only now realize that I'm using too much magic." Now she is the one with a smirk and lifted eyebrow.

The scowl is back on his face, more or less giving away that she was right with her guess. Her smirk only widens at that.

Another wave of exhaustion washes over her. "Well, as much fun as we have, I really used up too much magic, I think I have to send you back. I still have a lot of things to do, and for that I need to be able to think clearly without to much exhaustion. But I'm really happy to have you in my family Taryn and I hope to get to know you and the rest of you more in the future.", she smiles gently up at him.

The scowl on his face is replace with his own gentle smile, "Well then I will take my leave. What is it that is so important anyway?"

"I have to find a way to leave this island. Only members of my Guild can see it, so I can't just call a boat to pick me up..."

"Oh, if that is the only thing, I should be able to take you and you other friend with my lightning to land. You should both be immune against it, because the bond we formed, so there really shouldn't be a problem. You only need to rest, to regain enough magic to call me tomorrow.", he offers her.

Lucy's doesn't have to think long about it, she nods her head, "That would be great! Thanks for that! I think I'm really at my limit now, I will call you out tomorrow, Taryn."

"Do that, Blondie!", the smirk is back but before she has the chance to reprimand him, he already disappeared in a bolt along with a loud bang.


End file.
